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Keeping the Promise
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The Honorable Bill Lockyer
Attorney General, State of California
1300 I Street, Suite 1700
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Attorney General Lockyer:
In December 2003, you formed a Task Force to examine how local criminal
justice systems respond to domestic violence across California. You asked our 26-
member Task Force – representing criminal justice agencies, victims, the judiciary,
health care, and the Legislature – to focus on four areas: obtaining and enforcing
restraining orders, prosecuting misdemeanor domestic violence cases, holding
batterers accountable, and law enforcement’s response to health practitioner reports
of domestic violence. And you cautioned us to expect that local practice would vary
signifi cantly across the state.
After considering close to 300 interviews with practitioners, hundreds of
documents, and testimony from 69 witnesses at six public hearings throughout the
state, we have prepared a report that identifi es numerous problematic practices, and
offers clear, straightforward recommendations that we believe must be implemented
quickly to strengthen the criminal justice response to domestic violence in California.
We hereby submit the report to you, entitled Keeping the Promise: Protecting Victims
of Domestic Violence and Holding Batterers Accountable.
Our report includes disturbing examples of agencies that have failed: to respond
to domestic violence victims, to enforce the law, to comply with the law, and to
work in necessary collaboration. Yet, we have also seen fi rsthand how much can be
accomplished when there is strong local leadership and cooperation among agencies.
Our recommendations provide information on how agencies that work with or within
the criminal justice system can respond more strategically – and more effectively – to
domestic violence crimes and their victims.
This report should be read as a road map for addressing profound problems in
the handling of domestic violence incidents in California. It is a critical report, but
a report still fi lled with hope and optimism for the future – if local communities and
state agencies work closely together to implement the recommendations provided.
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We are confi dent that many dedicated public servants in local criminal justice
systems and many community-based advocates want a stronger response to this
devastating crime. We believe that this report can challenge all of us to redouble our
efforts to work in a collaborative and sustained fashion as we strive to make victims
safer and hold batterers accountable.
On behalf of the Task Force, thank you for your leadership and for the
opportunity to participate in this powerful social change process.
Respectfully submitted,
CASEY GWINN, Chair
Attorney General’s Task Force on
Criminal Justice Response to
Domestic Violence
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Table of Contents
1
Executive Summary
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Chapter 1
12
13
14
15
Chapter 2
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
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Chapter 3
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56
57
End Notes
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Chapter 4
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”46
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Chapter 5
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5
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Chapter 6
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Chapter 7
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(Listed in alphabetical order)
Appendix
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