The Dream Criminal Justice Response to Family Violence: What Would It Look Like? ALLISON M. DOWNEY-DAMATO, LL.B. Assistant Chief Crown Prosecutor Alberta Crown Prosecution Service Provincial Family Violence Treatment Program 2014 Knowledge Sharing Forum

Criminal Justice 101 Who is the Crown and what do we do? How do we work with others? What happens in court? What’s working? (don’t worry – lots of things are!) What needs to change What we can do about it? (there’s lots)

Family Violence is a Crime Is it? Or is it not?

Background Terminology Accused / suspect / offender Complainant = victim Police Prevention? Investigate Follow-up? Crown Provide advice to police Decide what to prosecute Trial Sentence – most of what we do

Criminal Process Complaint – who? Police make the initial decision whether or not to proceed, not victim conduct investigation lay charges or other recommendations reasonable and probable grounds Crown Bail or other pre-trial motions Trial Sentence - 80% of what we do

Decision to Prosecute Is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction? AND Is it in the public interest to proceed? Most important decision a Crown will make.

What are Crowns? Lawyers Agents for the provincial government Authority to prosecute criminal offences (federal legislation) Provincial legislation – CYFEA, DECA, PAFVA The Crown must: present evidence fairly not get a conviction at any cost. Lawyer for the government and the people not the lawyer for the victim, complainant, court or police. We share similar interests so we are usually working towards the same goal.

How Does the Crown Work With Others? Communicate, communicate, communicate! Meet at critical times on their terms Explain process in appropriate language Protect family throughout court Understand roles and boundaries Multidisciplinary teams – hinge / glue between everyone

We need to get/stay on the same page!

What Families Want From the System To be believed To accept their feelings To understand why they are or are not afraid Why they may minimize Not to be judged To help/fix their family RESPECT

What Families Need From The System Expertise Accountability Specialized units /courts Access Consistency Someone to stand up for them when they cannot COMPASSION

Results What is a good result? Belief? Support? Conviction? Sentence? Treatment? Healing/Rehabilitation? All of the above but most important is: The quality of social responses may be the best single predictor of the level of victim distress

What’s Working? Progressive Canadian laws Better understanding of family violence and trauma Responses to child abuse Cooperation and collaboration - MDTs

What’s Not Does all family violence need to be treated like a crime? Who decides? Alternative measures Current methods lacking – i.e. peace bonds Mandated treatment When? – earlier is better Who? – only offender What? – comprehensive Follow-up Recidivism

Why are we having trouble? Multifaceted causes Complex mental health and addiction issues Misunderstanding of risk and safety planning When to intervene and when to rehab? One size does not fit all Deeply engrained biases – systemic Why should it be treated differently? Endemic so why bother? Systems cannot / do not communicate Health, social services and justice Between levels of government and justice systems Federal, family and criminal law Young offenders

What needs to change? Communication between agencies and courts Single largest gap Regional differences – great variation throughout the province / urban and rural Treatment – when and where increasing competency Bias still exists – despite good law and cases Educate bench Continue specialized courtrooms and units

Why Bother? 1. Help children 2. Prevent a crime 3. Save a life or two 4. CYA - at a minimum, modest coordination and cooperation is expected between community organizations and stakeholders

“If you want to do something about public safety, pay more attention to domestic violence.” Dr. Stephen Hart

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