| Abstract: | Ample research indicates that the laws, policies, and legal actors involved in domestic violence cases can achieve iatrogenic or therapeutic effects on both offenders and victims. This article explores the ways in which the legal system reinforces maladaptive behavior by offenders and victims and how it can influence changes in such behavior through legal mechanisms. The therapeutic jurisprudence perspective is used to examine the psychology of offenders who commit domestic violence crimes in Part I. Part II explores the psychology of domestic violence victims. Part III covers the impact of the arrest and prosecution stages of the criminal justice system. Trials, plea bargains, and sentencing issues are explored in Part IV, and the use of restraining orders is explored in Part V. These issues and the therapeutic jurisprudence perspective can inform law reform efforts, criminal justice policy, and mental health policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
