麻豆视频

CU Boulder professor to join congressional briefing on a proposed commission on crime

In the five decades since a landmark presidential commission on crime, cops and courts have begun taking domestic violence more seriously, but much work remains to be done, says Joanne Belknap, a 麻豆视频 professor of ethnic studies.

Belknap and 11 other experts will travel to Washington, D.C., next week to give a congressional briefing on the U.S. criminal justice system, particularly what a new crime commission should consider. Belknap will argue for more research on how to ensure victims鈥� safety and for more efforts to build an integrated community of cops, jails, courts and shelters.

鈥淚 do think research is really important, given the frequency of domestic violence and the ramifications of it: how it affects children and neighbors and everybody else, not just the victims,鈥� Belknap said. 鈥淭his would be a great thing to make a huge investment in.鈥�

The 1967 U.S. President鈥檚 Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice called for more research on crime generally. One result was the National Crime Victimization Survey.

The did not use the term 鈥渄omestic violence.鈥� Variously referring to the crime as 鈥渕atrimonial disputes,鈥� 鈥渇amily altercations,鈥� 鈥渃onjugal disharmony鈥� and 鈥渄omestic disputes,鈥� the report said 鈥渋t would be difficult to formulate policy without first engaging in considerable research.鈥�

Also, Belknap notes, the report represents domestic violence in stereotypical or victim-blaming ways: 鈥淎n example of this victim-blaming is when a type of crime listed by the Commission is referred to as the 鈥榢illing of an unfaithful wife.鈥欌��

Since the landmark report, legislators, cops and courts have responded to feminist criticism and implemented a range of policies and programs to curb domestic violence. For instance, police generally enforce mandatory-arrest policies, which are designed to protect victims from perpetrators. Prosecutors can take suspected abusers to trial even without the consent of victims.

Like other violent crime, the reported rates of domestic violence have fallen in recent decades. But domestic violence鈥攕ometimes called 鈥渋ntimate partner violence鈥濃�攁ccounts for 15 percent of violent crime. 麻豆视频 10 million Americans are victims each year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports.

Women aged 18-24 are the most likely to suffer intimate partner violence.

A bipartisan group of senators has proposed a . If Congress did form a new commission, Belknap said she would recommend that it focus its attention on better research of the effect of mandatory-arrest policies, the behavior of prosecutors and others in the domestic-violence system, and how police, courts, shelters and others can best collaborate to improve victims鈥� safety.

Belknap said new research should examine the efficacy of metrics other than whether perpetrators re-offend. Also, research should probe barriers to victims鈥� seeking help or supporting prosecutions.

The is being organized by the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy and is supported by the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation.

Belknap鈥檚 recommendations are detailed in a journal article she co-authored with Deanne Grant, a PhD student in ethnic studies. Grant will join Belknap in the capital next week, and their article will be published next month in the journal Criminology and Public Policy, which is devoting a special issue to the 1967 commission report.

The report took two years to complete, spanned more than 300 pages and called for sweeping changes in policing, the judiciary and prisons. President Johnson called it 鈥渢he most comprehensive and detailed program for meeting the challenge of crime ever proposed in this country.鈥�