The Role of Enforcement in Protecting Women
March 16, 2013
Read more here: Policing Restraint
As we know, orders for protection are frequently violated. How can we turn this around and who is responsible? Is there a role for a probation-style system or probation personnel in policing these orders? What do you think about this article?
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CJS-360 Diversity Issues 
NK. In my honest opinion I believe there are two parties besides the offender that have a responsibility in the violation of orders for protection. First, if these violations are repeat violations then the judge presiding over the case has a part in it. At some point the offender can not be allowed to continuously be released from jail. Obviously the offender is not taking the courts serious enough or the punishment is not swift enough for them. Second, the victim plays a major role in the sense that many times she or he continues have contact with the offender even when the protection order is in place. As far as probation style, I think one thing that could be possible is to extend the probation period with stricter terms or one violation is a automatic incarceration. I think the article opens our minds up to the reality and severity of how unprotected women really are.
Agree with you a far as sometimes the victim plays a major role because sometime she or he continues to have contact with the offender even when the protection order is present. I have a friend who fits in this category her boyfriend was charged with domestic abuse against her so their was an order of protection for her. she wasn’t suppose to be in contact with him but they both violated the order of protection. I also agree that probation guidelines should be tougher if the defendant violates often.
In my opinion, restraining orders are issued for a reason and should be treated with utmost importance by law enforcements nationwide. It is rather unfortunate and astonishing that some New York City police officers treated citizen’s order of protection ordinarily, causing enormous psychological, emotional and physical damages to affected citizens.
Officers should start responding more proactively to domestic violence/ abuse and restraining order calls to reduce the high percentage of adult women dying from domestic violence. If Colorado police had done their due diligence, Jessica Gonzales wouldn’t have lost three daughters who were violently killed by their biological father in violation of a restraining order against him. Simon (the children’s father) must have been suffering from depression, or some type of mental illness which officers could have detected through dialogue. If they had intervened quickly, four lives could have been saved, “a stitch in time saves nine”. Simon would have been arrested and referred to the necessary treatment facility.
All in all, public officers must understand that they are in a position of power and discretion. Their action, or inaction, good decision or bad decision could mean the difference between disaster and happiness/ life and death. Strict enforcement of restraining orders and hands-on response to citizen’s calls is critical for public safety.
In my opinion a restraining order is just that. It is suppose to be used to protect someone however many women and men have these order put on someone to protect themselves from a person whom they fear. Many times the orders are violated. I personal know someone who had a restraining order against her ex boyfriend she told the police that he stated that he would kill her before he would let anyone else be with her. The police still released him after she begged them not to letr him go because she felt that he would make good on his promis to kill her. within days of his release he killed her and them went to the day care center where their child was being cared fore and killed their child. His reasoning for killing the both of them was so that he would not have to pay child support. Needless to say that if the restraining order worked or if the police had just took the time out to listen to the young lady she would still be around today, she would be enjoying life with her daughter. So I must say I agree with the other person that left a comment a restraining order is JUST a PIECE OF PAPER that has no meaning to it.
OFP’s are becoming a hot topic amongst LEOs and their enforcement of them. I believe that OFP’s are very beneficial for obvious reasons and that the petitioner has a sense of security. I do however believe that there are very lenient punishments when OFPs are violated. I Think that the county and the courts need to put more weight behind these protection orders. What I mean by that is that there needs to be more stricter penalties for these violations. Also, there is a common theme out in the law enforcement world, that the petitioners are not so innocent. If a petitioner manipulates the OFP by luring them in, both parties need to be held accountable. In the end, stricter penalties for violations of OFP’s .
Study have proven women are more likely to be victims of crime, yet law enforcement continues to lag behind in protecting women. Police need to respond to any and all infractions broken by an abuser. Serious abusers are stalkers who live for any form of contact, once denied the situation may become deadly for the female victim.
We can reduce attacks if police will just arrest abusers who violate orders of contact immediately after breech of contact has been violated. Women should call even at the slight contact such as phone calls, constantly showing up near you in public places, or having friends deliver messages. We can do a better job at counseling girls about abusive relationships. Young men should be given earlier intervention at signs of domestic violence tendencies.
Restraining Orders and Orders for Protection need to be treated the way they are stated. I once had a Restraining Order on an individual who I attended school with. She repeatedely harassed, stalked, and even went to lengths to have me jumped. I documented everything, and my parents and I went to the local PD. Long story short, I was told I would be protected by the school officials and SRO. After the restraining order was violated not once, not twice, but THREE times later, the individual and her accomplices were taken to JDC for ONE night. They were not suspended from school, they were not charged in court, they were not held accountable for their actions. I was left with a golf ball size bump just under the back of my head from being injured from being jumped. Almost 10 years later and it is still there. It takes just a few indivudals to put a stop to an issue regarding Restraining Orders and Orders for Protection. If they would have done their job correctly and timely, most of the above would have never taken place. I understand there is a fine line sometimes in law enforcement and without the county attorneys being ‘on LE’s side’ sometimes they are not able to fully do their job the way they wish. But in circumstances like this, it was uncalled for and wrong. I think if different LE agencies assigned officers/investigators to Restraining Orders and OFP’s alone, this could create a positive impact on our societies. Everyone needs to be on the same page though; county attorneys, judges, police officers & their chain of command, the victim (not engaging in contact with the suspect). If we all did our job, maybe it would put an end to this horrific cycle.
After reading this article I am confused to what the appellate court was thinking. Do they not know that women are most at risk when leaving an abusive relationship or any relationship for that matter? This is the only course of action one can take to protect themselves against unwanted contact. If the police refuse to enforce an OFP what other alternatives are available. Should women be arming themselves for protection? I think that more needs to be done to ensure that OFP’s are taken seriously and swiftly enforced. Habitual violators need to spend time in jail and have additional time hanging over them if they violate it again.
It is sad to read about children and women being killed when it could have easily gone the other way and they could have been protected. If the court found reason to issue a restraining order in the first place, why would they not react when it is violated? It is just a waste of time issuing it if it will not be enforced. Women, or whoever the victim is, like the ones in the article need to always report any violations of the restraining order. The police need to take these calls very seriously, pick up the violator of the order, and sort things out later. It is strange that a restraining order would be taken with less seriousness than any other crime or offense committed, since we know how tragic the outcome can be of ignoring restraining order violations. Doesn’t the law require the police to make arrests in domestic violence cases when there is probable cause, regardless of what the victim wants? Domestic violence is a tricky topic to sort out.
We all know that domestic or intimate partner violence is not considered as serious a threat to women by law enforcement. The irony of this is that women are most at risk not from strangers, but from the intimate partners. Statistics support this as well as the fact that the most dangerous times in a woman’s life are when she is leaving a relationship and when she is pregnant. This should make law enforcement’s response of greater urgency in these situations as opposed to less…I don’t necessarily agree with some that the victim is at fault because they have contact with the abuser. That may be true in some cases, but we don’t know the actual data around that or the circumstance involved. For all we know, this perception is anecdotal and even if it does occur specific circumstances could drive this type of behavior such as fear, coercion, or children and financial issues involved.
This story was very disturbing and makes me wonder if some women who are in similar situations as Carmen Valdez don’t call the police due to similar experiences. The police should not treat restraining orders lightly because it is a serious matter that needs their undivided attention. Any threat regarding someone’s life should be taken into consideration right away, especially if it is regarding the involvement of a restraining order. This particular incident could have been avoided if the police officer who received the call from Carmen V. did he job accurately. This incident affected the lives of Carmen V., her five-year-old twin sons, as well as her former partner Felix. Police officers should be easy to approach in order to better serve the community as well as to establish a foundation for strong relationships with those they serve. I personally don’t believe restraining orders should be treated like some piece of paper that does not matter. The order of protection should have the same restrictions for both the victim and the offender in order to avoid both parties from contacting one another. Both parties should have the order of protection paper no matter where they go. The guidelines should be tougher for both the victim and the offender so that way they both will not violate their order of protection. I also think it would be best to send out a female and male officer to a domestic call. That way the female officer could talk to the woman and the male officer could talk to the man who was involved in the domestic call. Police officers should have monthly training regarding domestic violence and the affect it has on the community they are serve. This could eliminate the police officers perception on taking the order of protection lightly. Chapter 11 indicates that women are often victimized through crimes against their persons, in their homes, and in their personal lives (pg.142). That same page also indicates that 10 to 25% of women are beaten by male intimate, and a quarter to half of all women will experience violence at the hand of a male intimate in their lifetime.
3. I feel that it is an absolute duty for law enforcement to respond to a violated restraining order. In most cases, restraining orders are in place for a reason and usually to protect the person who asked for the order. I hope that law enforcement personnel across country have learned from the two situations in this article and will begin to take restraining orders more serious and respond.
Law Enforcement needs to take every OFP very seriously; it seems to me that they get so many that never result in any issues, they become complacent in viewing all of them. It’s like an alarm call; if the cops keep getting called to false alarms at the same house, and get another call to that same house for an alarm, they might think “great another false alarm”. What if that alarm was the real deal though? They are going into it with the wrong mindset from the get-go, and would not be mentally prepared if it was a real one this time. It’s the same with OFPs. Maybe the last 5 calls you’ve received from this women have led to not finding the offender in the area, but what if this is the time the offender decides they are going to kill the victim? They can’t be going into it with the attitude that it is the same as last time because that’s how cops and citizens get hurt. There should be some level of responsibility placed on police to enforce these OFPs and to take each and every one seriously. They should take what the victim is saying into consideration and make sure if they feel unsafe, those threats made to the victim are taken seriously. The article states that 43% of women who are murdered are killed by intimate partners; with such high numbers the police should be taking OFPs
There is room for a probationary type system, but I think it should be much more limited in its freedom if they are repeat offenders or have had a previous violation (or many violations) of an OFP. First time offenders (unless the victim feels deeply unsafe) should be given the freedom to prove they made a mistake and have learned. However, if they are ruthlessly violent or have threatened to kill the victim or anyone close to them, they should not have such leeway. I think if they have proven to be violent or have violated the OFP, they should be forced to either be jailed until they are tried, or put on house arrest with some way of tracking them.
I think that police officers should put a strong focus on protecting their community, and part of that should be protecting those victims with OFPs. Those people should not have to constantly live in fear of being harassed, attacked, or even killed. The women’s stories from the article could have ended very differently had the police taken what they had said seriously. The police and the police departments should not allow for these things to happen, especially if they are contacted for help, so there should be a punishment to show that this issue needs to be taken seriously.
I am really surprised that this is still a big problem, I was dealing with this in the 90s. It is unfortunate that law enforcement or law makers have not been able to protect victims from abusive intimate partners. There has been plenty of time and experience to implement some effective steps forward in this conflict. Domestic violence has been around before I was born, and I had to deal with this when I was a child. Officers are very restricted in dealing with these situations, often times the abusive partner likes to be in control. This is a big civil problem considering they are the ones who make the majority of the family’s income. This would include cars, the house, credit, and debit cards. When this type of scenario is present, it makes it very complex to try to solve the matter.
For the time being society and community members need to push for effective laws to be implemented in dealing with these complex situations. The current laws are too general to solve this problem. As criminological theorist have pointed out, after the first initial arrest the abusive partner ( if employed) is statistically less likely to re offend. This thought is based on the fact that they risk losing their career and valuable things they worked hard for (stake in conformity) is what that is called. Since these abusive individuals have accepted most of societies conventional beliefs and morals , they think rationally about the decision and change their behavior. However, society and law enforcement need to try to come up with an effective plan or deterrence to stop this from happening the first time and deter repeated offenses if they continue to happen.
This relates to the class as we continue to discuss diversity. Society has set up the frame work for portraying women second to men. This has held women back for a long time and they have fallen victim to a myriad of crimes. This will be a complex problem that will take generations to fix, but we must start tackling small main problems first. Officers explain to new officers that they deal with domestic violence a lot, this would be considered a regular call they take. If so, why would something that is done on a weekly basis still be such a complicated task. This repeated occurrence would only experience and educate officers and law makers, so I’m wondering, why after all the years of experience and beaten victims has an effective plan been implemented? Scientist have been able to engineer 3d printers that can duplicate a cell out of animals and humans, to make steaks and human organs for transplants. But, we are still figuring out ways to deter men from being abusive towards women, or abusive intimate partners.
This article is disturbing to read as a woman that has been around the block with domestic violence. I feel as though an order of protection should be taken seriously in all regards. I understand that there are people who seek out orders of protection for reasons that are unjustified, but I believe that if one is granted, it should be followed up on. These two women were put through traumatic situations because police officer’s were taking their concerns seriously. It makes me wonder, if we cannot turn to police in times of heightened threat, who do we turn to?
I also understand that calls like these are difficult to approach. There is no way for a police officer to know if the call is something that will result in tragedy like these cases, if the violator is just tormenting the victim to get a reaction, or if the victim is calling because of a false alarm. Regardless, officers should always respond as though someone is in danger.