Jackson County, Oregon, Prosecution Response to Misdemeanor Domestic Violence Cases: Reports from the 2003 and 2005 Domestic Violence Safety and Accountability Audits

The audit in Jackson County was conceived to examine the response to domestic violence by agencies involved in the processing of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes. An 11-member audit team, comprised of practitioners from those agencies as well as battered women’s advocates, met together for two years to plan and organize the audit. They not only conceived of and defined the audit’s scope, but also with cooperation from their respective agencies, shared and analyzed considerable amounts of institutional data, and dedicated hours of their time to the audit process itself. This same audit team will be central to the implementation of the audit’s findings and recommendations.

The audit work in Jackson County continued in 2005, next examining the dispatch and law enforcement response to the following aspects of domestic violence: dual arrests or arrests of women, sexual assault, stalking, strangulation, child witnesses, and when involved parties are from under served populations such as communities of color, individuals with immigration status, non-English speakers, individuals in gay or lesbian relationships, etc.