Many victims refuse to testify, don't show up for court, make up/forgive each other. It's such a problem, I had a client (victim), the judge issued a bench warranty, for failure to appear. She didn't show up and the case was rescheduled several times.
If the case is unable to proceed to trial, charges are dropped and the record expunged.
Moo...
In the U.K. we can continue on with the prosecution even if the victim tries to withdraw the complaint or doesn’t show up. We have gold silver bronze categories for how we deal with DV and two incidents or more per household with children are automatically referred to social services. Joint and multi agency meetings are held to discuss the most serious situations that are silver and gold categories, weekly MARAC meetings
Victims and offenders are given courses ( gratis) , the victims to recognise what the perpetrator is doing and what their behaviour constitutes and how destructive it is and the perpetrator for addressing triggers to DV and strategies to prevent them engaging in it and realising ALL the consequences to the family. Failure to engage can lead to the children being put on the child protection register and can lead to the children being permanently removed from the parents if it’s not addressed/they continue to reside together and the DV continues
We are getting so much better than we previously were in years gone by in supporting victims of DV. Still a way to go but most definitely in the right direction. I set up the first domestic violence unit in 1990 in my first shire police force and it was a first working in partnership with Women and Children’s Aid and social services. We now have MASH teams which are offices set up for all agencies who deal with DV ( Police, Soc Services, Women’s aid, Health, Education,Schools) all working from the same offices together to ensure communication and information sharing between all agencies to address the risk and recidivism.
Did you know that on average a DV victim will undergo 35 incidents of DV , before they will report it?
Furthermore, we have very recently introduced new laws around coercive control because it’s recognised that DV can be psychologically victimising as well as physically victimising and often times, victims would say that the torturous drip drip drip of the mental abuse, eroding their confidence, making them question their self and blame their self for the reasons why their partner victimised them, was worse because it’s constant whereas a beating is over until the next time. That broke my heart when I became aware of that train of thought. The key to success is training of police officers to deal with DV correctly and with empathy , for Education, Health and other outlets to recognise and report suspected DV and to listen to children who will make mention of it, for Courts to adequately sentence perpetrators, for an education programme to recognise patterns of behaviour ( this is now being delivered in schools in U.K.), for supporting agencies and charities to continue to support victims and perpetrators with both the practical aspects ( place to live, money , victims shelter etc) and the support of educating victims and giving coping strategies and Re building confidence, as well as perpetrators being mandated to attend behavioural DV courses to recognise impact etc and prevent future offending, legislators to continue to seek ways to support victims through new laws and for familiy services to identify and work with the children of DV families. If this is done and agencies continue working together for a common purpose, with DV being given the recognition of the harm it causes to victims and ultimately the children in the ripple effect, and we continue to work on a positive response to DV, ensuring support is available through the bronze, silver and gold approaches as well as working on prevention and recidivism and education in our young people to prevent DV as they get into relationships in the future, it’s all a step in the right direction!