NCJ Number
131160
Date Published
1990
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Several landmark cases in the past few years have established the responsibility of law enforcement officers to provide effective intervention and protection for victims of domestic violence. In both constitutional and statutory claims, battered women have been successful in holding individual officers, their departments, and even prosecutors liable for their failure to protect the victims' rights.
Abstract
Several liability cases filed by victims of domestic violence have argued that their right to equal protection was violated when certain police responses, including mediation or avoidance of arrest and prosecution, failed to provide the same measure of protection afforded to victims who did not live with or know their assailants. To protect themselves from liability suits, law enforcement officers should understand issues involving citizen's arrest, duty to arrest in probable cause felonies and on-view misdemeanors, residence entries, and citations of suspects, as they apply to domestic violence cases. This article briefly describes lawsuits filed against law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and judges.