No Drop Prosecution & Domestic Violence: Screening for Cooperation in the City that Never Speaks

Throughout history, domestic violence has been infamously kept behind closed doors and outside of our legislature. It was not until the 1960s, due to the efforts of the battered women’s movement, that the U.S. government began to address domestic violence as a social ill and offered protection to victims through statutes and policies in both State and Federal capacities. This note elaborates on one such policy, known as a “No-Drop” policy, which has been implemented by prosecutor’s offices throughout New York City’s five boroughs, as a mechanism to aggressively combat domestic violence. “No- Drop” policies allow prosecutors to vigorously prosecute domestic violence cases regardless of victim cooperation. This note provides a comparison of the policies implemented in the boroughs of the Bronx and Brooklyn, and ultimately argues that the Bronx’s failure to implement a “No-Drop” policy and their inordinate reliance on victim cooperation in their decision on whether to prosecute a case is ineffective in protecting victims within marginalized communities from domestic violence