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You are here: Resources / Domestic Violence / Prosecuting Domestic Violence

Criminal Prosecution of Domestic Violence
Author: Linda A. McGuire, Esq. for the Battered Womens Justice Project. This article identifies appropriate goals to be pursued in woman battering and the special challenges these cases present to prosecutors. It offers guidelines for improving collaboration between prosecutors and advocates.

Relevent Research

Sometimes What Everybody Thinks They Know Is True.

Richard D. Friedman, Roger C. Park. Law and Human Behavior. New York: Dec 2003.Vol.27, Iss. 6; pg. 629.

Abstract: D. Davis and W. C. Follette question the value of motive evidence in murder cases. They argue that the evidence that a husband had extramarital affairs, that he heavily insured his wife's life, or that he battered his wife is ordinarily of infinitesimal probative value. It is argued that when this kind of evidence is combined with other evidence in a realistic murder case, the evidence can be quite probative. Cases are analyzed in which it is virtually certain that the victim was murdered but unclear who murdered her, and in which it is uncertain whether the husband murdered the wife or she died by accident. It is shown that in each case motive evidence, such as a history of battering or of infidelity, can substantially increase the odds of the husband's guilt.