Fewer batterers put into programs [View All]

Fewer batterers put into programs
Victims' advocates fault plea bargains

As domestic homicides more than doubled in Massachusetts, judges across the state sent only about half as many batterers to abuse intervention programs last year as they did in 2003, according to public health officials.


The plunging numbers are raising concerns among victims' advocates that judges are too readily accepting plea bargains that allow offenders to attend shorter anger management classes instead of the more rigorous batterer-intervention programs.

Beyond that, state officials and advocates worry that fewer victims are taking their cases to court, for a variety of reasons. Among them: victims afraid of retaliation, illegal immigrants who are afraid to become involved in the criminal justice system, and a key Supreme Judicial Court ruling that puts more pressure on victims to provide often difficult testimony in their cases.

"If there are fewer prosecutions and fewer people being ordered to batterer intervention, it all starts to look like a pattern of lack of accountability for perpetrators," said Mary Lauby, executive director of Jane Doe Inc. "It should then be no surprise that there are more homicides."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/04/08/fewer_batterers_put_into_programs/