A therapeutic jurisprudence approach to the legal processing of domestic violence cases.

Abstract

Ample research indicates that the laws, policies, and legal actors involved in domestic violence cases can achieve iatrogenic or therapeutic effects on both offenders and victims. This article explores the ways in which the legal system reinforces maladaptive behavior by offenders and victims and how it can influence changes in such behavior through legal mechanisms. The author uses the therapeutic jurisprudence perspective to examine the psychology of offenders who commit domestic violence crimes in Part I. In Part II, the psychology of domestic violence victims is explored. The impact of the arrest and prosecution stages of the criminal justice system is discussed in Part III. Trials, plea bargains, and sentencing issues are explored in Part IV, and the use of restraining orders is explored in Part V. The discussion of these issues and the therapeutic jurisprudence perspective presented in this article can inform law reform efforts, criminal justice policy, and mental health policy.