U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Consent, Inference and Patterns of Abuse in a Case of Domestic Violence (From Forensic Psychologist’s Casebook: Psychological Profiling and Criminal Investigation, P 368-379, 2005, Laurence Alison, ed,--See NCJ-210952)

NCJ Number
210966
Author(s)
Emily Alison; Laurence Alison
Date Published
2005
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This chapter assesses a domestic violence case in order to interpret and examine the circumstances as they compare to other domestic violence cases.
Abstract
In the case at hand, the defendant (Warner) is accused of serious assault, rape, and false imprisonment for the attack on the victim (Winter). The authors reviewed several pieces of written evidence regarding the case but did not interview the victim, defendant, or witnesses; the assessment is thus based on the written documentation alone. The facts of the case are summarized and the key issues of the assessment are highlighted. In particular, the authors focused on two key issues of relevance in assessing the case at hand: (1) an examination of the role of intent common among domestic violence cases so that a pattern of abusive, controlling, and violent behavior could be established, and (2) the prevalence and circumstances involved with the use of sexual violence and rape in domestic violence cases. A review of the research literature on domestic violence and domestic sexual assault is offered, with particular attention paid to the role of jealousy in domestic assault cases and the issue of consent in domestic violence cases involving rape or sexual assault. Thus, the assessment of the case involved the establishment of general trends and patterns of abuse in physically and sexually violent relationships so that the jury and judge could make more informed decisions concerning the case at hand. Note, references