Principal Effect Of 1994 DV Law In Colorado Springs Is Reduction In 911 Domestic Disturbance Calls To Police by Charles E. Corry, Ph.D.
Principal Effect Of 1994 DV Law In Colorado Springs Is Reduction In 911 Domestic Disturbance Calls To Police by Charles E. Corry, Ph.D.| Home | Abstract | Contents | Site Map | Tables | Index | Bibliography |
| Comments? | Get Newsletter | Help the EJF |
| Chapter 10 — Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado |
| Next — Uniform standards for domestic violence cases do not exist |
| Back — Demographics of domestic violence in Colorado - 2007 |
Colorado Springs Police Department data 1990-2004
911 calls not associated with a domestic disturbance
911 domestic disturbance calls
Notes on the Colorado Springs police data
Two problems arise from this approach
Another approach to using demographic data is to look at trends within a single judicial district. Data from the state court administrator clearly demonstrates the 4 th Judicial District leads the state in sheer numbers of domestic violence and abuse cases and has been a leader in all years for which court data are available (Table 58 and Table 63).
The 4 th Judicial District encompasses El Paso and Teller counties, and the major metropolitan area therein is Colorado Springs. As I live there, it was easily possible for me to obtain data from the Colorado Springs Police Department annual reports for the eighteen-year period 1990-2007, bridging the year 1994 when the current domestic violence laws with mandatory arrest, etc. were enacted in Colorado.
Because the high levels of domestic violence prosecutions in Colorado Springs are often thought to be related to the huge military presence here, I also looked at court data for other misdemeanor offenses that one commonly associates with military personnel, e.g., underage alcohol offenses, drugs, fraud, and offenses against persons and property. I can find no such correlation (Table 63).
From the annual Colorado Springs police reports the most useful and consistent data related to domestic violence has proven to be calls for service in domestic disturbances and arrests for simple assaults from 1990 through 2007. Most, ~80% (range 71-82%), of all DV arrests (Table 67) in the data compiled by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are for misdemeanor third-degree, or "simple assault." Though other crimes are also included in the "simple assault" category of the Uniform Crime Reports provided by the police, a reasonable estimate is that 33% to 50% of simple assault arrests by the Colorado Springs police have their origin in a domestic disturbance.
The U.S. Census Bureau provides population data for the Colorado Springs metropolitan area for 1990 through 2007.
• 911 calls in domestic disturbances,
• Arrests for simple assaults, and, for comparison,
• All 911 calls except domestic disturbances,
are tabulated in Table 55 and illustrated through 2004 by the bar chart in Table 56.
|
Population: Estimates from U.S. Census Bureau, Colorado Springs metropolitan area. Note that the population of a metropolitan center is always greater than that of the city. 911 Calls: Taken from the annual reports of the Colorado Springs Police Department. Domestic disturbance calls are the sum of "domestic" and "family" 911 calls. Note that the CSPD police report for 2003 does not list any (0) Disturbance - Family 911 calls. Arrests: for simple assault include other offenses than those involving domestic violence. Court cases: Values for domestic violence court cases are from Colorado Judicial Branch Annual Statistical Reports |
|||||
Note that the bar chart in Table 56 is updated in 5-year increments to show trends rather than year-to-year variations.
The simplest and most reasonable approach in viewing the police data is to assume a linear relationship between population and number of arrests and domestic disturbance calls if other factors remain constant.
The assumption of a linear increase in 911 calls proportional to the increase in population is borne out by the number of 911 calls to the Colorado Springs police that are not associated with domestic disturbances in Table 55. The population of the Colorado Springs metropolitan area increased 44% between 1990 and 2004 (shown by blue line in bar chart in Table 56). If 911 calls increased linearly and only proportional to population, the number of such calls unrelated to domestic disturbances would increase from 136,811 in 1990 to 197,000 in 2004. The reported number in 2004 is 210,329 (Table 55), a 54% increase and much higher than predicted.
Obviously, all other 911 calls besides domestic disturbances are increasing faster than population growth. Nonetheless, a straight line (linear, cyan in bar graph in Table 56) is the best fit to the increase in 911 calls unrelated to domestic violence though the slope is greater than for population growth for undetermined reasons.
As the number of 911 calls unrelated to domestic disturbances increases linearly and faster than the growth in population, 911 calls for domestic disturbances should increase in a like manner.
From 1990 through 1993 the number of 911 domestic disturbance calls increased roughly proportional to the population increase (Table 56), then spiked at 14,916 calls in 1994 with passage of the statewide DV laws.
Assuming a linear relation between population and domestic disturbance calls implies that between 1990 and 2004 domestic disturbance 911 calls should increase at least 44%, or from 11,090 to 15,900 (lower red line on bar chart in Table 56). As the number of all other 911 calls increased faster than the population between 1990 and 2004, or 54%, then domestic disturbance calls might be expected to increased the same amount, or to an estimated 17,100 DV calls in 2004 (upper red line in bar chart in Table 56).
However, only 9,261 domestic disturbance calls were logged in 2004, more than 40% fewer 911 calls than projected by population growth. Clearly, after the 1994 spike in 911 domestic disturbance calls, some factor now strongly deters citizens who would be expected to call for help in a domestic disturbance.
Extrapolating out to 2007, a linear increase related only to population growth would suggest 16,700 domestic disturbance calls. If the percentage of domestic disturbance calls increased at the same rate as all other 911 calls, from 136,811 in 1990 to 273,377 in 2007 (99%), then there should have been 22,200 domestic disturbance calls in 2007. However, only 13,157 were logged (Table 55), or 40% fewer than projected. Note that 2007 increase has not yet been plotted in Table 56 as the plot is only updated in five-year increments to show trends rather than year-to-year variations.
Attorneys consistently report that half the DV cases they now see are the result of arrests made on the basis of hearsay. A neighbor or passerby hears a loud argument or noises and calls the police. So it likely that at least half the 911 calls now made in domestic disturbances are not made by "victims." Evidently the 1994 DV laws have made informed citizens more afraid of the police and justice system than they are of their intimate partners.
In Table 55 the number of arrests for simple assault is clearly nonlinear, more than doubling in 1995 relative to the 1990 cases after passage of the DV mandatory arrest law in 1994. A linear increase of 40% (orange line on bar chart in Table 56) projects 1,240 arrests for simple assault in 2004 if the 1994 DV law had not been passed, compared with the reported number of 1,489 arrests. That is a 120% increase over the projected number, but 1,489 arrests is a substantial decrease from the 2,014 arrests in 1995, the year after the DV law was passed. So while the population increased 18% from 1995 to 2004, the arrests for simple assault decreased 26%. Thus, at present there is no significant difference in the number of arrests for simple assault than there would have been if the 1994 domestic violence laws had never been passed (compare dashed and solid orange lines in bar graph in Table 56).
Table 56 shows two clear trends associated with passage of the Colorado domestic violence laws in 1994.
• First, and most pronounced, citizens are strongly deterred from making 911 domestic disturbance calls to police after passage of the statewide domestic violence laws in 1994.
• Secondly, introduction of mandatory arrest for domestic violence in the law did not result in concurrent numbers of arrests by frontline officers. And at present domestic violence laws have no significant effect on the number of arrests for simple assault.
Although the number of arrests for simple assault did more than double in 1995, the numbers are far below the number of domestic disturbance calls received. If half the arrests are DV-related then only about 1,000 were made, or about 9% of the domestic disturbance calls resulted in an arrest.
But after 1995 the number of arrests for domestic violence has been steadily declining (solid orange line in Table 56). By 2004 it is clear that any increase in the number of simple assault arrests is simply proportional to the increase in population. Thus the DV arrest rate in 2004 is indistinguishable from 1990 rates in Colorado Springs despite the mandatory arrest law.
Before passage of the 1994 DV laws only about 3% of domestic disturbance calls resulted in an arrest for simple assault. Colorado Bureau of Investigation data suggests that for 2004 33% of simple assault arrests statewide were for DV. Thus, about 500 of the 2004 arrests for simple assault in Colorado Springs (Table 55) were for DV and that is only 5% of the 9,261 domestic disturbance 911 calls made, basically the same percentage as before the 1994 DV laws were passed.
But these findings beg the question of whether mandatory arrest is the best response to domestic disturbances?
The number of DV court cases in the 4 th Judicial District continues to be the highest in the state (Table 51), so domestic violence isn't simply disappearing here. The number of arrests for simple assaults has not decreased nearly as much as the calls in domestic disturbances, and arrests are proportional in some degree to the number of 911 calls. So some other factor must be sought to account for the decrease in the calls for police assistance.
Calling 911 in a domestic argument under current laws is the equivalent of a nuclear attack and the usual result is Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD ) of the relationship. Most couples (an estimated ~80%) having an argument don't want the relationship to end, they simply want some help with the immediate problem, e.g., he got drunk and she needs him out of the house until he sobers up, she is having a nervous breakdown and needs some medical help, etc. But what citizens get under current law is, all too frequently, the man is arrested, barred from the house by a restraining order, and the relationship destroyed. The effects are particularly disastrous for any children the couple may have, particularly if it is mutual combat (50% of the time it is) and the police arrest both man and woman. Such damage goes far beyond any negative effects of even violent disagreements most couples have.
While looking at the police data, a local crime analyst told me that women, especially single mothers, don't call because they don't want the man in jail or under a restraining order as he is paying the rent and buying the food.
I have also heard repeatedly from women that once domestic violence is reported the Department of Human Services (DHS) begins investigating, and their children may be, and all too often have been taken from the home by child protective services.
Thus, instead of an officer who is charged with, and acts to restore and keep the peace, a domestic disturbance call now brings a Gestapo-like system of law enforcement that ends the argument by destroying the relationship and the family, taking the roof from over their heads, the food from their mouths to feed the legal system and its parasites, and, all too often, children from their parents.
News of such actions spread like wildfire. Thus, I suggest the data in Table 55, as summarized in the bar chart in Table 56, show that citizens have become more afraid of law enforcement and social services than they are of their partner. The unintended consequence of the domestic violence laws thus appears to primarily be the deterrence of reporting a domestic disturbance.
A lifeline isn't much good if all the lifebuoys have already been thrown over the side by thousands of people shouting: "Man overboard!" and the people in the water are more afraid of being hit by the lifebuoy than they are of drowning. Surely among the projected 6,000-7,000 domestic disturbance 911 calls that were not made in 2004 there were many citizens who desperately needed a peace officer but feared the legal system more.
This fear of the police is the exact opposite of the intended purpose of mandatory arrest that was supposed to encourage victims of abuse to report it.
As with all archival data there are problems and the data were not kept in an entirely consistent manner. For example, though numbers of calls for service in domestic disputes were available for all sixteen years, they were split apart into such categories as "Domestic Disturbance Project" and "Disturbance/Domestic" for 1991-1993 because Colorado Springs was one of seven cities where the concept of mandatory arrest was tested (with inconclusive results). In 1994-1999 the 911 calls were separated into "Disturbance/Domestic" and "Disturbance/Family." But in 1990 there was only the single category of "Domestic Disturbance." As I see no reason to separate family and domestic disturbances, and they were originally lumped together by the police department, I summed the domestic disturbance categories to arrive at the total number of calls for service for each year in family situations. These are shown in red in the bar graph in Table 56.
The next problem is with numbers for DV arrests. The Uniform Crime Reports do not have a separate category for domestic violence. However, most DV arrests are for misdemeanor third-degree (simple) assault (Table 67) and those are tabulated as "simple assault" in the police reports, and shown in orange in the bar graph in Table 56.
The first is that arrests are made for simple assaults for many other reasons than DV, e.g., a bar fight, so there are an unknown number of such arrests included each year for other than DV in Table 55.
The second problem is that DV arrests may be made for other than third-degree assault, e.g., felony second-degree assault tabulated as "aggravated assault" in the Uniform Crime Reports. Again, many other crimes are included in the "aggravated assault" category. Further, the number of arrests for aggravated assault are roughly an order of magnitude fewer than for simple assault and the small numbers lose statistical significance. For plotting purposes in Table 55 and Table 56 I have ignored those and other categories of crimes where an arrest may have included charges of domestic violence.
In examining the demographics of restraining orders the court statistics indicate that, using 1999 as an example, there were 3,948 charges of domestic violence filed in the 4 th Judicial District. These values vary for other years but the same problems remain.
The City of Colorado Springs is far and away the largest population center in El Paso and Teller counties that comprise the 4 th Judicial District in Colorado. Table 55 only shows 1,630 arrests for simple assault in 1999 and the CSPD annual report indicates an additional 414 arrests for aggravated assault.
It is known that not all of these 2,000 arrests included DV charges, but perhaps half did. Of course, some DV arrests were made on charges other than simple or aggravated assault, e.g., kidnapping or family offenses that might account for as many as 200 more DV arrests. Thus, I can account for roughly 1,000-1,200 DV arrests in Colorado Springs in 1999 from the CSPD annual report.
The El Paso county sheriff's office (EPSO) report lists 695 DV incidents in 1999.
Assume that the other small towns of El Paso County contribute another 500-600 DV arrests per year for a total of 2,500 DV arrests in 1999 in El Paso County.
The 21,228 residents of Teller County only comprise 4% of the population of the 4th Judicial District. Thus, there were likely only 80-100 DV arrests in Teller County in 1999.
From the CSPD and EPSO reports and the estimates given above it appears there were about 2,600 arrests involving domestic violence in 1999 in the 4 th Judicial District.
Where are the other 1,300 charges (3,948 cases filed minus 2,600 arrests) of domestic violence coming from in the 4 th Judicial District?
Statewide the disparity between DV incidents reported by police agencies and court cases consistently differs by nearly a factor of two. There are almost twice as many court cases as reported police incidents (Table 67) when any reasonable estimate (4,000+ per year) for Denver and municipal DV court cases are included. How on earth can there be nearly two times as many domestic violence court cases as there are arrests for this offense?
The Colorado Springs police reports clearly demonstrate that mandatory arrest and other policies of the 1994 domestic violence laws had only a minor, temporary effect on DV arrests and that small effect has decayed to insignificance with time.
The DV laws have, however, had a major negative impact on the willingness of citizens to call police for help during domestic disturbances. The draconian persecution of those who do call 911 during a domestic disturbance deters thousands of citizens from contacting the police in domestic disputes.
Colorado Springs was one of seven cities where mandatory arrests were tested from 1991 to 1993. Richard A. Berk, a strong advocate of mandatory arrests, summarized the results of the experiment in Colorado Springs (p. 330) as follows:
"...There were four treatment conditions: an emergency order of protection and arresting the offender, an emergency order of protection and immediate crisis counseling for the offender, an emergency order of protection only, and 'simply' trying to restore order (which was the 'business-as-usual' treatment). All the treatment conditions that included an emergency order of protection performed a little better than trying to restore order alone, but arrest did not stand out as most effective."
Berk (p. 332)
then concludes
"...that although arrest is not superior to a variety of other criminal justice interventions, one can on the average do no better."
In short, mandatory arrest without a warrant, and often based on hearsay, has been implemented because no one could think of, or possibly could not get funding to explore a better method.
I find that an appalling reason to implement such a draconian policy!
It is also clear that in Colorado Springs these policies deter large numbers of citizens from even calling the police in domestic disturbances.
It was also shown that in three of the seven cities studied that mandatory arrests increased the levels of violence. Subsequent investigations have correlated the increase in violence with offenders who were unemployed and unmarried at the time of the arrest. Arrest proved to be most effective with offenders who had jobs and families. These are also the least likely to reoffend in any case.
In short, the law now punishes most severely those least likely to be repeat offenders, and those with little to lose by an arrest are not deterred. There is no evidence that with married, employed offenders that an arrest is any more effective than an emergency protection order of limited duration, or some other intervention, but considerable evidence that the family and marriage is destroyed in the present process. And there is no mention in the literature about the abuse of civil liberties inherent in warrantless, mandatory arrests of citizens together with unwarranted searches of their homes.
And clearly the court data overstates the domestic violence problem in Colorado as evident in Table 67. We are left wondering how there can be nearly twice as many cases in the Colorado courts as there are domestic violence incidents reported by the police in this state? And the problems are twice as bad in Colorado Springs.
| Home | Abstract | Contents | Site Map | Tables | Index | Bibliography |
| Comments? | Get Newsletter | Help the EJF |
| Chapter 10 — Demographics Of Domestic Violence In Colorado |
| Next — Uniform standards for domestic violence cases do not exist |
| Back — Demographics of domestic violence in Colorado - 2007 |
This site is supported and maintained by the Equal Justice Foundation.