Specialization of Domestic Violence Case Management in the Courts: Findings From a National Survey

Despite the far-reaching roles and responsibilities of courts and judges in domestic violence cases, courts have been the last of the justice system components to engage in institutional reform to improve the system’s impact on domestic violence (Buzawa and Buzawa, 1996; Epstein, 1999). Law enforcement and prosecution have made dramatic advances and systemic changes since the early 1970s (Epstein, 1999; Little et al., 1998), but, with a few exceptions, courts did not begin focusing attention on domestic violence cases until the early 1990s. Domestic violence cases now account for a significant and growing portion of State court caseloads. Ten-year trend data from the Court Statistics Project of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) indicate that from 1989 to 1998 domestic violence filings in State court