Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado — 2002

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The fiscal year 2002 statistics for the Colorado courts for domestic violence charges, with associated mandatory restraining orders, are given in their Table 31, with a total of 15,414, and civil restraining orders are tabulated in their Table 29, totaling 13,615, for a combined total of 29,029, up 1,337 (5%) from the previous year. These tables are compiled by the State Court Administrator's Office and are available from the Colorado State Court Web site and are combined and presented here in Table 45.

Table 45: Number restraining orders, domestic violence cases, and divorce rate in the State of Colorado in fiscal 2002 (July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002) by judicial district and county.
Judicial district Colorado Counties	2002 Census	Restraining orders (DA)¹	Domestic violence²	Restraining orders %³	Percent of population	Orders per 10,000 people					Divorces per 10,000⁴
Judicial district Colorado Counties	2002 Census	Restraining orders (DA)¹	Domestic violence²	Restraining orders %³	Percent of population	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	Divorces per 10,000⁴
First Gilpin and Jefferson	536,616 total	1,489 (942)	1,275	9.5%	13.6%	44	43	44	51	52	59
Second Denver (not included in totals)	560,415	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	57
Third Huerfano and Las Animas	23,286 total	168 (37)	107	1.0%	0.6%	82	124	127	119	118	67
Fourth El Paso and Teller	565,404 total	2,519 (1,733)	3,364	20.3%	14.3%	140	114	107	103	104	70
Fifth Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit	87,203 total	159 (24)	421	2.0%	2.2%	27	75	66	68	67	41
Sixth Archuleta, La Plata, and San Juan	57,232 total	230 (88)	223	1.6%	1.5%	56	83	86	98	79	57
Seventh Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel	90,242 total	556 (303)	326	3.0%	2.3%	108	89	95	97	98	70
Eighth Jackson and Larimer	266,135 total	598 (314)	1,132	6.0%	6.7%	42	38	42	57	65	55
Ninth Garfield, Pitkin, and Rio Blanco	68,285 total	192 (77)	419	2.1%	1.7%	68	76	78	85	90	68
Tenth Pueblo	146,880	827 (455)	932	6.1%	3.7%	56	92	121	127	120	56
Eleventh Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, and Park	83,897 total	256 (139)	295	1.9%	2.1%	51	82	69	77	66	59
Twelfth Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache	46,715 total	229 (24)	237	1.6%	1.2%	80	113	131	104	100	60
Thirteenth Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Yuma	78,593 total	300 (131)	287	2.0%	2.0%	61	61	64	62	75	60
Fourteenth Grand, Moffat, and Routt	46,759 total	81 (23)	237	1.1%	1.2%	44	45	45	62	68	58
Fifteenth Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers	22,255 total	72 (48)	111	0.6%	0.6%	84	80	79	77	82	64
Sixteenth Bent, Crowley, and Otero	30,960 total	228 (86)	293	1.8%	0.8%	93	131	136	163	168	63
Seventeenth Adams and Broomfield	414,922 total	1,376 (822)	1,346	9.4%	10.5%	53	67	62	65	66	52
Eighteenth Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln	749,091 total	2,693 (1,473)	1,727	15.2%	19.0%	N/A	46	49	52	59	55
Nineteenth Weld	205,014	736 (419)	1,214	6.7%	5.2%	97	88	101	90	95	47
Twentieth Boulder	279,197	467 (204)	758	4.2%	7.1%	25	48	51	47	44	57
Twenty first Mesa	121,419	268 (144)	610	3.0%	3.1%	75	62	69	74	72	79
Twenty second Dolores and Montezuma	26,022 total	147 (27)	100	0.9%	0.7%	54	55	65	87	95	72
Totals (minus Denver)	3,946,127	13,615 (7,513)	15,414			Av 62 M 67 SD28	Av 67 M 77 SD27	Av 69 M 80 SD30	Av 72 M 84 SD29	Av 74 M 85 SD28	Av 59 M 60 SD 9
County populations: U.S. Census Bureau Restraining orders and divorces: Colorado State Court Tables 16, 29, & 31						Av 62 M 67 SD28	Av 67 M 77 SD27	Av 69 M 80 SD30	Av 72 M 84 SD29	Av 74 M 85 SD28	Av 59 M 60 SD 9
Notes: 1. Prior to fiscal 2002 the courts lumped all civil restraining orders together. The 2002 statistics separate civil and domestic abuse (DA) orders. For consistency with prior years both the total number and (domestic abuse) restraining orders are given. Again for consistency, the total number of civil restraining orders plus domestic violence cases is used to calculate percentages and per capita values. Where domestic abuse orders exceed 50% the values are shown in (bold). 2. A restraining order is mandated by law C.R.S. § 18-1-1001. 3. Average is from the sum of civil and criminal restraining orders (29,029) divided by the state population minus Denver City and County. 4. Divorces includes all dissolutions, legal separations, and invalid marriage.						Av —Statewide average M —Mean of judicial districts SD — Standard deviation of judicial districts

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In 2002, for the first time, the State Court Administrator has broken the number of restraining orders issued into the separate categories of (a) domestic abuse and (b) all others. The number of restraining orders issued in each judicial district are shown in parentheses (number of domestic abuse orders) in Table 45. The values for judicial districts where more than half the restraining orders are for domestic abuse are shown in (bold). However, for consistency with data from previous years, it is necessary to use the total number of restraining orders for each judicial district and accept the inherent bias.

The average number of restraining orders per 10,000 citizens continues to increase over time, from 62 in 1998, to 67 in 1999, to 69 in 2000, to 72 in 2001 to 74 in 2002 (Table 45). This five year trend does not suggest the domestic violence problem is being solved or deterred by current law and practice.

The mean number of restraining orders for 2002 is 85 per 10,000 residents for twenty-one of the twenty-two Colorado judicial districts, with a standard deviation of 28 (Table 45).

A simple test of equity is the percentage of restraining orders issued in a judicial district versus the percentage of the population residing in that district. If uniform standards were being applied the percent of population would roughly equal the percent of restraining orders issued in that district. Any variance should diminish as the sample size increases. Thus large judicial districts like the Fourth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Twentieth will show smaller differences than small districts like the Third, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Twenty Second.

Allowing for differences in the populations of the judicial districts we still find in Table 45 that every year the Fourth Judicial District issues an exceptionally high number of restraining orders relative to its percentage of the state population.

Although small districts, the Third, Twelfth, and Sixteenth judicial districts have consistently issued a much greater percentage of restraining orders than their populations would suggest.

While a much larger judicial district, the Nineteenth also falls into this category. So these five judicial districts fail this simple test of equity.

In terms of the rate of restraining orders, the Third, Fourth, Tenth, and Sixteenth judicial districts continue to lead the state for the year 2002 with 118, 104, 120, and 168 restraining orders per 10,000 citizens respectively (Table 45). For 2002 the Twelfth Judicial District dropped slightly from 104 to 100 restraining orders per 10,000 citizens but remains in the top five highest for the state.

Comparison of domestic violence and abuse with other misdemeanors in 2002

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Table 46 is a continuing attempt to see where and whether restraining orders and domestic violence correlate with other societal problems. The implicit assumption in Table 46, as in previous years, is that domestic violence is associated with other social problems such as alcoholism, drug use, etc. For example, underage alcohol abuse and drug use would be associated with abusive or broken homes, and that Joe Six Pack likely gets into other kinds of trouble, e.g., bar brawls, for which he is arrested as well.

Table 46: Selected misdemeanor filings in the Colorado courts for fiscal year 2002. Number of filings per 10,000 citizens.
Judicial district Colorado Counties	2002 Census	Domestic Violence	Underage Alcohol Offenses	Drugs	Offense Against Persons	Offense Against Property	Fraud
First Gilpin and Jefferson	536,616 total	24	15	11	15	9	4
Second Denver (not included in totals)	560,415	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Third Huerfano and Las Animas	23,286 total	46	105	50	62	48	12
Fourth El Paso and Teller	565,404 total	60	24	25	23	11	3
Fifth Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit	87,203 total	48	40	28	38	28	9
Sixth Archuleta, La Plata, San Juan	57,232 total	39	13	42	25	8	2
Seventh Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel	90,242 total	57	21	34	23	11	10
Eighth Jackson and Larimer	266,135 total	43	44	32	27	18	1
Ninth Garfield, Pitkin, Rio Blanco	68,285 total	61	50	25	35	19	1
Tenth Pueblo	146,880	64	25	7	24	11	1
Eleventh Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Park	83,897 total	35	25	25	29	13	25
Twelfth Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache	46,715 total	51	35	36	55	23	103
Thirteenth Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, and Yuma	78,593 total	37	32	29	27	12	11
Fourteenth Grand, Moffat, and Routt	46,759 total	51	75	65	40	20	7
Fifteenth Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers	22,255 total	50	50	38	24	20	55
Sixteenth Bent, Crowley, and Otero	30,960 total	95	87	26	47	28	3
Seventeenth Adams and Broomfield	414,922 total	32	10	6	11	5	0
Eighteenth Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln	749,091 total	23	26	11	13	12	0
Nineteenth Weld	205,014	59	16	14	17	10	8
Twentieth Boulder	279,197	27	71	20	27	25	1
Twenty first Mesa	121,419	50	53	52	29	19	1
Twenty second Dolores and Montezuma	26,022 total	38	46	20	29	11	11
Statewide average (minus Denver) Mean of 21 judicial districts Std. deviation of 21 judicial districts		39 47 16	30 41 26	19 26 14	21 30 13	13 17 10	5 13 24
County populations: U.S. Census Bureau Misdemeanors: Colorado State Court Table 31

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Last modified 11/19/24

Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado — 2002

Table 45: Number restraining orders, domestic violence cases, and divorce rate in the State of Colorado in fiscal 2002 (July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002) by judicial district and county.

Comparison of domestic violence and abuse with other misdemeanors in 2002

Table 46: Selected misdemeanor filings in the Colorado courts for fiscal year 2002. Number of filings per 10,000 citizens.