Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado — 1999

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| Chapter 8 — Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado |

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Following the same process as shown in Table 38 for 1998, Table 39 shows the number of restraining orders issued in Colorado, 23,877, by judicial district and county versus the population in each district (except the 2 nd Judicial District, Denver) for 1999. Restraining orders for 1998 are included in Table 39 for comparison. Note that in 1999 the court statistics began to be broken out as civil restraining orders and domestic violence cases separately. As noted in the caveats in the chapter introduction there are inherent errors in the values given by the state court administrator's office.


 
    Table 39: Number of temporary and permanent restraining orders, domestic violence cases, and divorce rate in the State of Colorado in fiscal 1999 by judicial district and county.

Judicial district

Colorado Counties

1999

Census

Restraining

orders

Domestic

violence 1

Percent of

restraining

orders 2

Percent of

population

Orders per

10,000 people

Divorces

per 10,000

citizens 3

1998

1999

First

Gilpin and Jefferson

513,696

total

1,485

total

705

total

9.2%

14.4%

44

43

65

 

Second

Denver (not included in totals)

499,775

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

64

Third

Huerfano and Las Animas

21,514

total

157 total

110

1.1%

0.6%

82

124

74

Fourth

El Paso and Teller

521,222

total

1,990

total

3,948

total

24.9%

14.7%

140

114

75

Fifth

Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit

70,112

total

163

total

364

total

2.2%

2.0%

27

75

57

Sixth

Archuleta, La Plata, and San Juan

51,274

total

222

total

202

total

1.8%

1.4%

56

83

60

Seventh

Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale,

Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel

80,884

total

470

total

246

total

3.0%

2.3%

108

89

73

Eighth

Jackson and Larimer

238,389

total

456

total

446

total

3.8%

6.7%

42

38

58

Ninth

Garfield, Pitkin, and Rio Blanco

60,206

total

164

total

294 total

1.9%

1.7%

68

76

71

Tenth

Pueblo

136,987

321

932

5.3%

3.9%

56

92

62

Eleventh

Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Park

78,114

total

265

total

375

total

2.7%

2.2%

51

82

68

Twelfth

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla,

Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache

44,658

total

221

total

283

total

2.1%

1.3%

80

113

57

Thirteenth

Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan,

Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington,

and Yuma

71,336

total

231

total

206

total

1.8%

2.0%

61

61

60

Fourteenth

Grand, Moffat, and Routt

41,129

total

101

total

85

total

0.8%

1.2%

44

45

68

Fifteenth

Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers

21,963

total

76

total

99

total

0.7%

0.6%

84

80

64

Sixteenth

Bent, Crowley, and Otero

30,839

total

181

total

222

total

1.7%

0.9%

93

131

60

Seventeenth

Adams

331,045

1,024

1,186

9.3%

9.3%

53

67

59

Eighteenth

Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln

664,378

total

1,965

total

1,058

total

12.7%

18.7%

Suspect

46

56

Nineteenth

Weld

165,805

406

1,047

6.1%

4.7%

97

88

62

Twentieth

Boulder

273,112

501

822

5.5%

7.7%

25

48

53

Twenty first

Mesa

115,147

166

546

3.0%

3.2%

75

62

75

Twenty second

Dolores and Montezuma

24,548

total

59

total

77

total

0.6%

0.7%

54

55

73

Totals (minus Denver)

3,556,358

10,624

13,253

 

Av. 62

M 67

SD 28

Av. 67

M 77

SD 27

Av. 63

M 67

SD 7

County populations: U.S. Census Bureau

Restraining orders and divorces: Colorado State Court Tables 15, 27, 29

Notes:

1. A restraining order is mandated by law C.R.S. § 18-1-1001.

2. Average is the sum of civil and criminal restraining orders (23,877)

divided by the state population minus Denver City and County (3,556,358).

3. Divorces includes all dissolutions, legal separations, and invalid marriage.

Av—State average

M —Mean of judicial districts

SD —Std. deviation

of judicial districts

Top


 

Given an estimated population of 4,056,133 for Colorado in 1999, after subtracting the Denver population the sampled population includes 3,556,358 citizens. If citizens are being afforded equal protection under the law, each district should have issued 67 ±27 (one standard deviation) restraining orders per 10,000 residents if uniform standards are being applied.

Again, in and of itself, such a large standard deviation suggests significant discrepancies in the way judicial districts are handling the problem of domestic abuse and violence. Compare the standard deviation of ±27 for restraining orders in Table 39 with the standard deviation of ±7 for divorces where the citizen makes an individual choice.

Clearly, as shown in bold in Table 39, the numbers of restraining orders in some judicial districts are significantly above any reasonable statistical variance. These include the Third, Fourth, Twelfth, and Sixteenth judicial districts in 1999.


 

Comparison of domestic violence and abuse with other misdemeanors in 1999

Top

Another approach to isolating judicial districts that are abusing their discretionary powers with regard to domestic violence is to examine all misdemeanor cases filed for 1999. Table 40 shows selected, population-normalized results from Table 29 “Misdemeanor Filings by Type of Case” presented by the Colorado State Court.


 
    Table 40: Selected misdemeanor filings in the Colorado courts for 1999. Number of citations per 10,000 citizens.

Judicial district

Colorado Counties

1999

Census

Domestic

Violence

Underage

Alcohol

Offenses

Drug

Offense

Against

Person

Offense

Against

Property

Fraud

First

Gilpin and Jefferson

513,696

total

14

9

9

12

8

5

Second

Denver

499,775

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Third

Huerfano and Las Animas

21,514

total

51

31

18

48

47

5

Fourth

El Paso and Teller

521,222

total

76

11

30

17

12

8

Fifth

Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit

70,112

total

52

30

38

33

28

1

Sixth

Archuleta, La Plata, San Juan

51,274

total

39

5

38

24

23

2

Seventh

Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale,

Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel

80,884

total

30

16

50

22

21

4

Eighth

Jackson and Larimer

238,389

total

19

17

18

27

15

1

Ninth

Garfield, Pitkin, Rio Blanco

60,206

total

49

34

62

27

19

1

Tenth

Pueblo

136,987

68

21

6

22

15

9

Eleventh

Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Park

78,114

total

48

7

28

19

12

9

Twelfth

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla,

Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache

44,658

total

63

32

27

50

23

48

Thirteenth

Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, and Yuma

71,336

total

29

12

24

25

13

24

Fourteenth

Grand, Moffat, and Routt

41,129

total

21

51

85

45

20

12

Fifteenth

Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers

21,963

total

45

20

30

23

18

35

Sixteenth

Bent, Crowley, and Otero

30,839

total

72

30

18

27

29

1

Seventeenth

Adams

331,045

36

1

8

11

3

0

Eighteenth

Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln

664,378

total

16

9

20

13

9

0

Nineteenth

Weld

165,805

63

12

12

18

12

3

Twentieth

Boulder

273,112

31

20

18

16

29

7

Twenty first

Mesa

115,147

47

29

44

20

26

1

Twenty second

Dolores and Montezuma

24,548

total

31

21

12

28

16

7

Statewide average (minus Denver)

Mean of judicial districts

Standard deviation of judicial districts

37

43

19

13

20

12

21

28

20

18

25

11

14

19

10

4

9

12

County populations: U.S. Census Bureau

Misdemeanors: Colorado State Court Table 29

Top


 

If a judicial district has a high incidence rate for several categories of misdemeanors as well as domestic abuse and violence then it is likely that a general problem exists in the society. Misdemeanors, such as offenses against persons or property, fraud, drug use, and underage alcohol use, would likely be prevalent in conjunction with domestic violence in a troubled society. Such a correlation contains the implicit assumption that underage alcohol abuse and drug use would be associated with abusive or broken homes, and that Joe Six Pack would likely get into other kinds of trouble such as bar brawls. This assumption is examined for 1999 and subsequent years .

Top


 

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| DV Home | Abstract | Contents | Tables | Index | Bibliography |

 

| Chapter 8 — Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado |

| Next — Demographics of domestic violence in Colorado - 2000 |

| Back — Demographics of domestic violence in Colorado - 1998 |


 

This site is supported and maintained by the Equal Justice Foundation.

Last modified 10/14/22