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Abstract: 

Literature on the prosecution of domestic violence cases tends to focus on prosecution strategies or policies and prosecutorial discretion. There is a dearth of studies concerning factors associated with verdicts in domestic violence trials. This study of 140 domestic violence cases appearing before the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in Chester field County, Virginia examines the five demographic and court process variables of race, gender, previous criminal history, use of Polaroid pictures as evidence, and relationship between victim and perpetrator to see if any of them correlated with guilty verdicts in domestic violence cases. This article includes a table on Court Process Variables.

Keywords: connections between arrest, prosecution, and recidivism

Affiliations:  1: Virginia Commonwealth University; 2: Domestic Violence Resource Center.