Domestic Violence

Prosecutor’s Challenges

Rasmussen College

Author Note

This essay is being submitted on May 9, 2014, for Robert Sutter, J200/CCJ2685 Section 3, Domestic Violence course.

Prosecutor’s Challenges

Everyday you hear about domestic violence on the news whether it be child abuse or inmate partner abuse. The abuser gets arrested but the victim is still cared. They do not want to cooperative with justice system in fear that when the abuser gets out more harm will come to them. This leaves the job of prosecuting very difficult for the prosecution.

Many victims do not like to fully cooperate in a stalking or harassment prosecution. This is a situation also seen in domestic violence cases. The reasons why a victim of stalking or harassment backs away from fully cooperating with a prosecution include the following: concerns or fears about angering the accused by cooperating in the prosecution; concerns or fears about increased stalking or harassment or an escalation to physical violence or other criminal offenses from the defendant as a result of involving law enforcement and/or cooperating in the prosecution; not truly wanting to see the accused prosecuted, but rather hoping instead that simply reporting to law enforcement will stop the conduct; fear, embarrassment and concerns over aspects of the victim's personal life being exposed in the public setting of a courtroom; fear, confusion or a lack of understanding about the processes, procedures and roles of the judge, law enforcement, the prosecution and defense counsel; situations where the victim did not actually experience stalking or harassment but used such allegations to retaliate against or embarrass the accused for some reason; and reconciliation with the accused where the victim and the accused have some sort of ongoing relationship with each other (JEC, 2014).

These reasons can affect how victims testify or whether they will voluntarily make themselves available during the investigation or trial (JEC,...