Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado — 2003

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The fiscal year 2003 statistics for the Colorado courts for domestic violence charges, with associated mandatory restraining orders, are given in their Table 31, with a total of 16,159, and civil restraining orders are tabulated in their Table 29, totaling 14,972 (8,287 of these orders are for domestic abuse), for a combined total of 31,131, up 2,102 (7%) 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 47.

Table 47: Number restraining orders, domestic violence cases, and divorce rate in the State of Colorado in fiscal 2003 (July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003) by judicial district and county.
Judicial district Colorado Counties	2003 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	2003 Census	Restraining orders (DA)¹	Domestic violence²	Restraining orders %³	Percent of population	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	Divorces per 10,000⁴
First Gilpin and Jefferson	533,408 total	1,525 (1,008)	1,354	9.3%	13.4%	44	43	44	51	52	54	56
Second Denver (not included in totals)	557,478	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	56
Third Huerfano and Las Animas	23,326 total	190 (49)	127	1.0%	0.6%	82	124	127	119	118	136	70
Fourth El Paso and Teller	572,264 total	3,075 (2,014)	3,493	21.1%	14.3%	140	114	107	103	104	115	64
Fifth Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit	88,432 total	237 (15)	412	2.1%	2.2%	27	75	66	68	67	73	44
Sixth Archuleta, La Plata, and San Juan	58,114 total	243 (84)	265	1.6%	1.5%	56	83	86	98	79	87	59
Seventh Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel	91,373 total	621 (351)	345	3.1%	2.3%	108	89	95	97	98	106	66
Eighth Jackson and Larimer	268,117 total	764 (354)	1,232	6.4%	6.7%	42	38	42	57	65	74	53
Ninth Garfield, Pitkin, and Rio Blanco	68,551 total	209 (88)	347	1.8%	1.7%	68	76	78	85	90	81	70
Tenth Pueblo	148,751	1,086 (574)	944	6.5%	3.7%	56	92	121	127	120	137	52
Eleventh Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, and Park	84,646 total	353 (143)	305	2.1%	2.1%	51	82	69	77	66	78	61
Twelfth Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, and Saguache	47,027 total	216 (41)	280	1.6%	1.2%	80	113	131	104	100	106	65
Thirteenth Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, and Yuma	78,567 total	250 (97)	244	1.6%	2.0%	61	61	64	62	75	63	54
Fourteenth Grand, Moffat, and Routt	47,486 total	128 (95)	258	1.2%	1.2%	44	45	45	62	68	81	63
Fifteenth Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers	21,883 total	76 (48)	89	0.5%	0.6%	84	80	79	77	82	75	59
Sixteenth Bent, Crowley, and Otero	30,816 total	227 (81)	245	1.5%	0.8%	93	131	136	163	168	153	72
Seventeenth Adams and Broomfield	422,442 total	1,286 (783)	1,480	8.9%	10.6%	53	67	62	65	66	65	50
Eighteenth Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln	767,666 total	2,771 (1,671)	1,864	14.9%	19.2%	N/A	46	49	52	59	60	51
Nineteenth Weld	211,272	810 (360)	1,198	6.5%	5.3%	97	88	101	90	95	95	50
Twentieth Boulder	278,231	510 (260)	912	4.6%	7.0%	25	48	51	47	44	51	46
Twenty first Mesa	124,676	261 (129)	674	3.0%	3.1%	75	62	69	74	72	75	78
Twenty second Dolores and Montezuma	26,160 total	134 (42)	91	0.7%	0.7%	54	55	65	87	95	86	67
Totals (minus Denver)	3,993,210	14,972 (8,287)	16,159			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 78 M 88 SD28	Av 56 M 59 SD 9
County populations: U.S. Census Bureau Restraining orders and divorces: Colorado State Court Tables 16, 29, and 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 78 M 88 SD28	Av 56 M 59 SD 9
Notes: 1. Prior to fiscal 2002 the courts lumped all civil restraining orders together. Statistics for 2002 and subsequent years 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 (31,131) 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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From 2002 on 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 47. 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.

As shown in Table 47 and Table 79, the per capita number of restraining orders continues to increase over time, from 62 in 1998 to 78 in 2003, a 26% increase in just six years. This trend does not suggest the domestic violence problem is being solved, or offenders deterred, by current law and practice.

The mean number of restraining orders for twenty-one of the twenty-two Colorado judicial districts for 2003 is 88 per 10,000 residents, with a standard deviation of 28 (Table 47).

In terms of the rate of restraining orders, the Third, Fourth, Tenth, Twelfth, and Sixteenth judicial districts again lead the state for the year 2003 with 136, 115, 137, 106, and 153 restraining orders per 10,000 citizens respectively (Table 47). May god have pity on children and families in these draconian districts.

Percent of restraining orders versus percent of population in 2003

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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 should show smaller variances 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 47 that again in 2003 the Fourth Judicial District has issued an exceptionally high number of restraining orders (21.1% of total) relative to its percentage of the state population (14.3%) sampled.

Although small districts, the Third (1% of orders, 0.6% of population) and Sixteenth (1.5% of orders, 0.8% of population) judicial districts consistently issue a much greater percentage of restraining orders than their populations would suggest.

While larger judicial districts, the Tenth (6.5% of orders, 3.7% of population) and the Nineteenth (6.5% of orders, 5.3% of population) also fall into this category.

These five judicial districts fail this simple test of equity.

Comparison of domestic violence and abuse with other misdemeanors in 2003

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Table 48 is a continuing attempt, for six years now, to see where and whether restraining orders and domestic violence correlate with other societal problems. The implicit assumption in Table 48, 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 48: Selected misdemeanor filings in the Colorado courts for fiscal year 2003. Number of filings per 10,000 citizens.
Judicial district Colorado Counties	2003 Census	Domestic Violence	Underage Alcohol Offenses	Drugs	Offense Against Persons¹	Offense Against Property²	Fraud
First Gilpin and Jefferson	533,408 total	25	16	15	15	9	1
Second Denver (not included in totals)	557,478	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Third Huerfano and Las Animas	23,326 total	54	99	39	48	33	2
Fourth El Paso and Teller	572,264 total	61	29	24	22	13	2
Fifth Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit	88,432 total	47	35	35	33	22	3
Sixth Archuleta, La Plata, San Juan	58,114 total	46	16	42	21	9	1
Seventh Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel	91,373 total	38	36	28	30	11	7
Eighth Jackson and Larimer	268,117 total	46	38	29	23	18	1
Ninth Garfield, Pitkin, Rio Blanco	68,551 total	51	52	19	36	17	0
Tenth Pueblo	148,751	63	22	9	30	17	0
Eleventh Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Park	84,646 total	36	24	28	30	13	18
Twelfth Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache	47,027 total	60	39	33	49	23	95
Thirteenth Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, and Yuma	78,567 total	31	26	23	35	6	4
Fourteenth Grand, Moffat, and Routt	47,486 total	54	67	64	32	21	9
Fifteenth Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers	21,883 total	41	49	41	21	12	26
Sixteenth Bent, Crowley, and Otero	30,816 total	80	70	15	53	27	3
Seventeenth Adams and Broomfield	422,442 total	35	8	7	12	8	0
Eighteenth Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln	767,666 total	24	23	10	13	12	0
Nineteenth Weld	211,272	57	16	12	21	12	4
Twentieth Boulder	278,231	33	59	24	23	25	0
Twenty first Mesa	124,676	54	67	55	29	22	2
Twenty second Dolores and Montezuma	26,160 total	35	33	24	35	14	5
Statewide average (minus Denver) Mean of 21 judicial districts Std. deviation of 21 judicial districts		40 46 14	29 39 23	20 27 15	21 29 11	14 16 7	3 9 21
County populations: U.S. Census Bureau Misdemeanors: Colorado State Court Table 31.
Notes: 1. Offenses against persons includes the crimes of assault, child abuse, forgery, harassment, and menacing. 2. Offenses against property includes the crimes of arson, criminal mischief, and theft. 3. Values that differ from the state average for a given offense by one standard deviation or more are shown in bold.

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Last modified 12/18/24

Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado — 2003

Table 47: Number restraining orders, domestic violence cases, and divorce rate in the State of Colorado in fiscal 2003 (July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003) by judicial district and county.

Percent of restraining orders versus percent of population in 2003

Comparison of domestic violence and abuse with other misdemeanors in 2003

Table 48: Selected misdemeanor filings in the Colorado courts for fiscal year 2003. Number of filings per 10,000 citizens.