NCJ Number
148572
Date Published
1993
Length
81 pages
Annotation
This document contains opening statements by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and testimony and prepared statements by witnesses at a session on stalking and family violence, March 17, 1993.
Abstract
Committee members present were Senators Biden (chair), Hatch, Feinstein, Grassley, Kennedy, Cohen, Thurmond, Simon, and Moseley-Braun. Witnesses were Sen. Barbara Boxer, Ruth Jones, Kathleen Krueger, Vincent J. Poppiti, and Helen M. Lardner. Members stated the magnitude of the problem-- 200,000 Americans currently being stalked, and more than 400,000 protective orders issued every year. Lardner told the committee how her sister, Kristin, had been stalked and shot to death by a man she had dated for two months. the boyfriend was already on probation for having attacked a previous girlfriend. Kristin got a Brookline (MA) court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO). That judge and the judge at the hearing for permanent injunction both neglected to check the boyfriend's record; the boyfriend's probation officer in Boston also did not follow up on substantial information that she had. After Kristin's death, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill establishing a statewide registry of domestic violence offenders that also includes the past criminal histories of offenders.