NCJ Number
90393
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 25 Issue: 3 Dated: (July 1983) Pages: 309-318
Date Published
1983
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The London City Police Force's (Ontario, Canada) new policy of bringing charges in incidents of spousal assault has resulted in the police bringing significantly more charges in these cases and in the more efficient handling of these cases by criminal courts compared to family courts.
Abstract
The policy change of the London City Police Force did not result from changes in legislation, but was initiated by the department in response to research which indicated the victims wanted officers to bring charges and that the necessary grounds for such action often existed. The police perceived this policy to be a change in departmental attitude about the seriousness of wife assault cases. The directive states that officers do not have to witness the assault but only need to have reasonable and probable grounds to believe that the assault occurred to bring a charge. The directive also states that, if the couple is no longer living together, the case should proceed to criminal court rather than to family court. To investigate the immediate effects of this policy change on officer behavior, research was undertaken to determine how many charges were brought by police in family violence calls within the 4 months following the policy change. Findings show a significant increase in the number of assault charges brought by the police from the same period in the previous year as officers appear to be treating wife assaults as they would treat assaults between strangers. The criminal court also appears to be more effective in dealing with these cases than is family court, since the delays to first court appearance and final disposition are significantly shorter than family court cases, and the likelihood of a conviction is far greater in criminal court than it is in family court. Tabular data and 11 references are provided.