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Civil Protection Orders: A Guide for Improving Practice

NCJ Number
237452
Author(s)
Emilie Meyer J.D.
Date Published
2010
Length
189 pages
Annotation
This guide presents strategies for use by professionals whose work involves ensuring that the civil protection order (CPO) system is effective in protecting victims of domestic violence from further victimization by their abusers.
Abstract
The guide first emphasizes the danger faced by victims of domestic violence who separate from their abusers. Sensing a loss of control over the victim's life, the abuser often intensifies efforts to punish and control the victim. More than 40 years ago, Pennsylvania became the first State to enact comprehensive legislation that allows victims of domestic violence to obtain CPOs that require the abuser to have no contact of any type with the victim. Since then, all 50 States, the District of Columbia, all U.S. territories, and many Native-American tribes offer this civil remedy for victims of intimate partner violence. Federal legislation has strengthened State-based CPOs by requiring States, tribes, and territories to accord "full faith and credit" to protection orders issued in foreign jurisdictions. Currently, CPOs are the predominant legal remedy domestic-violence victims use to protect themselves from further violence by the abuser. This guide outlines "universal strategies for a victim's safety," discusses the importance of and strategies for ensuring victim autonomy under the protection order, and also emphasizes strategies for ensuring victim accessibility to those who can act immediately and competently to enforce the protection order. Other sections of this guide address strategies for improving the CPO system's reliability, collaboration, sensitivity to issues of culture and diversity, community involvement, advocacy, and practice. Practice strategies are proposed for civil attorneys, the police, the courts, the judiciary, and prosecutors. Other issues discussed are the control of firearms, CPOs against military personnel, and the use of technology by CPO systems.