If You Want to Convict a Domestic Violence Batterer, List Multiple Charges in the Police Report

Problem: Even though reforms in the past 40 years mandated policeresponse to domestic violence (DV) crime, and in many states also mandated arrest,never-the-less baseline rates of DV prosecution remain low. Background: The nature ofprosecution is reviewed, noting that nearly all criminal cases are resolved through pleabargaining in state and federal cases. Thus, the nature of plea bargaining is examinedfrom a perspective of negotiable currency. Past research demonstrates that if multiplecrimes are described and listed in the first responding police officer’s written report,there is a substantially greater odds that the suspect will be prosecuted and foundguilty. Those extra charges can be dropped by prosecutors in exchange for a plea ofguilt. Purpose: This empirical study examines a discretionary best practices crimeinvestigation method that can be operationalized by first responding police officers, insitu, to determine whether its use leads to a significant increase in rates ofprosecution and criminal conviction for DV crime. The methodology is the choice tothoroughly investigate each DV crime to uncover concurrent and alsopast-but-still-chargeable crimes. This optional work is time-consuming because children,neighbors, the 911 caller, and others must be contacted and interviewed. Method:Randomly selected police reports (n = 366) were found to contain 22 combinations ofcrime codes listed as violations, for DV and other concurrent crimes. The reports wereevaluated on a number of prosecutorial outcomes. Frequency statistics were calculated,and logistic regression was used to confirm key relationships. Results: Only one thirdof all submitted reports listed more than one crime. For those investigations that didlead to prosecution, 97% resolved through plea bargaining. Most single chargemisdemeanor DV police reports were found to be “dead upon arrival” at the prosecutor’soffice, with only 29% resulting in any type of criminal conviction. Conversely, reportsthat list four crimes have a 100% rate of conviction. Three quarters of all “felony” DV,as labeled by police, either resulted in no criminal prosecution or prosecution as amisdemeanor. This replicates a finding of the California State Attorney General whoreported a serious problem with police regularly inflating DV charges. Police routinelyfailed to list children as victims (4% of investigations), even though they could havebeen listed about 61% to 86% of the time. Conclusions: There is substantial room forinvestigative improvement by police. A number of easily added crime codes are reviewedin the discussion section. The importance of sergeants sending officers back to thescene of the DV crime, while it is still warm and witnesses and additional evidence arestill available is discussed. The article concludes with a prediction: As rates oflisting more than one crime in police reports increases, there should follow asignificant and permanent increase in rates of prosecution and criminal conviction forDV crime