NCJ Number
226484
Journal
Criminology & Criminal Justice Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 51-71
Date Published
February 2009
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Results are presented from a study conducted in Montreal (Canada) on how police use their power to release an accused on bail with conditions in incidents of domestic violence granted to them in 1995.
Abstract
Study findings demonstrate that although police consider release with conditions in incidents of domestic violence to be a great responsibility on the whole, they had a very positive assessment of the release modality at their disposal. It allows them to release the accused on bail before his first appearance by monitoring him with conditions. Police investigators felt they were as capable of making the decision to release on bail as judicial officials. This discretionary power to release an accused on bail with conditions in incidents of domestic violence was thought by police to both reassure and protect the victim and avoid the need to detain the accused just to have conditions imposed by the court. In 1994, the Canadian Criminal Code (CCC) conferred a new general power on police, permitting them to impose certain conditions on released suspects. This power would also apply to domestic violence cases. This study investigated whether police were actually using this new power to impose conditions on released offenders in cases of domestic violence. Through interviews of investigators from the Montreal Police Service (SPVM), this study sought to describe and analyze the factors associated with police decisions for remand or various release modalities in domestic violence cases, to understand police investigators’ reasons to use nor not to use release with conditions, and to understand how police view their discretionary power regarding release with conditions in domestic violence cases. Notes and references