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Prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. A Portuguese study

Intimate partner violence is one of the most challenging and demanding problems that the criminal justice system has to face. Given the severe consequences of intimate partner violence, it is imperative that intervention from the criminal justice system, regarding perpetrators, be effective to preve...

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Autores principales: Vieira-Pinto, Paulo, Muñoz-Barús, José Ignacio, Taveira-Gomes, Tiago, Vidal-Alves, Maria João, Magalhães, Teresa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9202915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35709235
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269820
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author Vieira-Pinto, Paulo
Muñoz-Barús, José Ignacio
Taveira-Gomes, Tiago
Vidal-Alves, Maria João
Magalhães, Teresa
author_facet Vieira-Pinto, Paulo
Muñoz-Barús, José Ignacio
Taveira-Gomes, Tiago
Vidal-Alves, Maria João
Magalhães, Teresa
author_sort Vieira-Pinto, Paulo
collection PubMed
description Intimate partner violence is one of the most challenging and demanding problems that the criminal justice system has to face. Given the severe consequences of intimate partner violence, it is imperative that intervention from the criminal justice system, regarding perpetrators, be effective to prevent further victimization and recurrences. In Portugal, it is up to the state prosecutor to decide which cases will be subject to a social reintegration program as a pretrial diversion program. This study aims to explore the variables that might influence the state prosecutor’s decision-making process. We have examined 283 intimate partner violence cases in which provisional suspension of criminal proceedings was applied. The decision as to whether defendants should be referred for social reintegration program attendance (G1) or not (G2) was made by the state prosecutor. Differences between G1 and G2 were identified: the victim’s age, couple living in a current relationship, drug-addicted defendant, intimate partner violence child exposure. However, defendants’ unemployment and drug abuse were the only two variables identified as a determinant for state prosecutor decisions. We believe that the effectiveness of state prosecution decision-making would benefit from: (a) systematically taking into account all intimate partner violence risk factors; (b) an index or checklist detailing what science reveals useful in intimate partner violence offenders’ social reintegration; (c) rehabilitation solutions based on the needs of each offender instead of a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
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spelling pubmed-92029152022-06-17 Prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. A Portuguese study Vieira-Pinto, Paulo Muñoz-Barús, José Ignacio Taveira-Gomes, Tiago Vidal-Alves, Maria João Magalhães, Teresa PLoS One Research Article Intimate partner violence is one of the most challenging and demanding problems that the criminal justice system has to face. Given the severe consequences of intimate partner violence, it is imperative that intervention from the criminal justice system, regarding perpetrators, be effective to prevent further victimization and recurrences. In Portugal, it is up to the state prosecutor to decide which cases will be subject to a social reintegration program as a pretrial diversion program. This study aims to explore the variables that might influence the state prosecutor’s decision-making process. We have examined 283 intimate partner violence cases in which provisional suspension of criminal proceedings was applied. The decision as to whether defendants should be referred for social reintegration program attendance (G1) or not (G2) was made by the state prosecutor. Differences between G1 and G2 were identified: the victim’s age, couple living in a current relationship, drug-addicted defendant, intimate partner violence child exposure. However, defendants’ unemployment and drug abuse were the only two variables identified as a determinant for state prosecutor decisions. We believe that the effectiveness of state prosecution decision-making would benefit from: (a) systematically taking into account all intimate partner violence risk factors; (b) an index or checklist detailing what science reveals useful in intimate partner violence offenders’ social reintegration; (c) rehabilitation solutions based on the needs of each offender instead of a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Public Library of Science 2022-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9202915/ /pubmed/35709235 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269820 Text en © 2022 Vieira-Pinto et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Vieira-Pinto, Paulo
Muñoz-Barús, José Ignacio
Taveira-Gomes, Tiago
Vidal-Alves, Maria João
Magalhães, Teresa
Prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. A Portuguese study
title Prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. A Portuguese study
title_full Prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. A Portuguese study
title_fullStr Prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. A Portuguese study
title_full_unstemmed Prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. A Portuguese study
title_short Prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. A Portuguese study
title_sort prosecutorial decision-making regarding offenders’ social reintegration programs in intimate partner violence cases. a portuguese study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9202915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35709235
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269820
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