Spatial and Temporal Distance Between the Victim and Offender as a Factor in Protective Order Violations: How Much Distance is Enough?

Research on the effectiveness of protective orders indicates that they have only marginal protective value for the victim. This exploratory study investigated how the physical distance and temporal distance between the victim and offender corresponds to the percent of protective order violations. Results indicated that the percent of protective order violations was reduced to virtually zero when the victim and offender lived 25 miles or more apart. Surprisingly, this condition held for all types of contacts examined (physical, telephone, and cyber). The study concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the findings and suggestions for future research.

Patterns of injuries: accident or abuse.

This study uses two types of independent variables, age and the location of the physical wound, to develop a model of injury patterning that identifies violent behavior without direct observation of the assault. In this research, domestic violence injuries are compared to accidental injuries. The results indicate that there are specific and predictable injury patterns that separate abuse from other kinds of wounds. A logistic regression model was developed to identify the regions of the body most susceptible to injury from domestic assault. Using the age of the victim and the injury regions, probabilities were calculated to determine which wounds were caused by abuse.