Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado — 1999

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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 violence¹	Percent of restraining orders²	Percent of population	Orders per 10,000 people		Divorces per 10,000 citizens³
Judicial district Colorado Counties	1999 Census	Restraining orders	Domestic violence¹	Percent of restraining orders²	Percent of population	1998	1999	Divorces per 10,000 citizens³
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						Av. 62 M 67 SD 28	Av. 67 M 77 SD 27	Av. 63 M 67 SD 7
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

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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

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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

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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 .

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Last modified 12/18/24

Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado — 1999

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.

Comparison of domestic violence and abuse with other misdemeanors in 1999

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