The Influence of Civil Legal Services on Women's Safety

Background and Purpose: The majority of research on legal responses to intimate partner violence (IPV) has focused on the criminal justice system.  Recently, researchers have examined coordinated community responses to IPV as options for improving women’s safety.  However, examining civil legal services as part of these responses is largely absent from current literature.  Civil protective orders (CPOs) most directly address safety through setting restrictions on the perpetrator’s behavior; however, family law representation (divorce, custody, child support, etc.) may also address safety.  Divorce decrees can include protective orders that do not expire within one year, like a CPO.  Effective divorce and custody decrees can mitigate the perpetrator’s use of children to gain access to their victims by stipulating neutral locations or no contact between the parties during visitation exchanges.  The decree can also restrict perpetrators’ communication with women regarding parenting matters to communicating only via email or through a third party.  In this study, the association between civil legal services (CPO or family law case) and long-term safety for women who experienced IPV was examined. 

Method: Data from three waves of interviews (Wave 1, n = 150; Wave 2, n = 112; Wave 3, n = 85) with women who experienced IPV and received assistance from Iowa Legal Aid (ILA) were used to examine the association between the type (CPO or family law) and amount of civil legal services (billable hours) received and revictimization by her former partner.  Women were interviewed shortly after their case was taken by ILA, at six months, and one year.  Revictimization was assessed using the Conflict Tactics Scale Physical Assault subscale, the Psychological Maltreated of Women Inventory emotional/verbal abuse subscale, and the Stalking Behavior Checklist subscales for overt violent and harassing behaviors.

Findings: We expected to find that the receipt of civil legal services would reduce the risk of revictimization for women over time and this hypothesis was supported.  On average, women reported substantially less physical violence between Waves 1 and 2 (Wave 1 M = 6.58; Wave 2 M = 1.46), and this decrease held over to Wave 3 (M = 1.36).  Women also reported a decrease in emotional/verbal abuse (Wave 1 M = 30.30; Wave 3 M = 15.72), and stalking behaviors (overt violence: Wave 1 M = 1.69 to Wave 3 M = 1.32; harassing: Wave 1 M = 1.85 to Wave 3 M = 1.49) over time.  However, no statistically significant relation was found between the type or amount of legal services received and a decrease in physical violence, emotional/verbal abuse or stalking behaviors over time. Thus, it appears that civil legal services for both CPOs and family law cases have a similar effect on women’s reported safety over time. 

Conclusions and Implications: Intimate partner violence has a radiating impact on multiple areas of women’s lives.  Although not always recognized, civil legal services have the potential to address longer-term safety for women experiencing IPV.  The importance of including civil legal services as part of coordinated community responses to IPV will be discussed.