Intimate Partner Violence: Victims’ Opinions About Going to Trial

Criminal justice officials assume that intimate partner violence victims oppose filing charges against their abusers. In a
study of 94 respondents, reluctance actually occurred with the prospect of going to trial. While 70% supported filing charges,
only 37% wanted a trial. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses help explain the reasons women gave for their opinions
about trials. The strongest quantitative predictor was that as the level of the victim’s injury sustained from the crime increased,
their support for a trial increased. Gondolf and Fisher’s (1988) survivor theory predicted factors that influenced victims’
support or opposition to a trial in the quantitative section. The nested ecological model explained approximately half of
the open-ended responses to those opposing trials while the goals of sentencing model articulated most victims’ support for
trials.