Contributions of Research to Criminal Justice Policy on Wife Assault (From Family Violence: Research and Public Policy Issues, P 53-81, 1990, Douglas J Besharov, ed. -- See NCJ-125593)

• NCJ Number: 125598
• Author(s): J Fagan
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 29 pages
• Sale Source: University Press of America
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This analysis of the contributions of research on family violence and other issues to criminal justice policy regarding domestic assault emphasizes the reasons that the research has had little impact on policy and suggests ways to integrate family violence theory and research with contemporary criminological study of violence in the home.

Abstract

Awareness of family violence developed during an era when social intervention in family life had gained widespread support and created a context for defining family violence as an urgent social problem. The resulting political and social influences led to significant reforms and experiments in the criminal justice processing of domestic assault cases. However, criminologists continue to define family violence as a separate crime rather than as a form of violence or aggression. As a result, crucial perspectives on wife assault are often overlooked in criminal justice policy. To address this problem, the development of hypotheses that integrate theories of family violence and violence toward strangers and research studies on strategies for organizational change and the use of research might increase the use of family violence research in policymaking.