With the recent publication of crime statistics for 2003 by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation I have been able to update the <http://web.archive.org/web/20060222103958/http://www.dvmen.org/dv-90.htm%3edemographics> demographics of domestic violence in the state legal system. We now have archival court data for the years 1998 through 2003 and some clear trends are evident. With regard to domestic violence, Colorado is a bellwether state, having introduced some of the earliest laws requiring mandatory arrest, "no drop" prosecution, combined with "primary aggressor" (arrest the male) statutes. Further, in Colorado restraining orders are permanent, as in the rest of one's life, whereas in most other states such orders have a finite duration of one or two years.
The earliest statewide demographic data regarding restraining orders presently available is for the year 1998.
Table 36 shows the number of those orders issued in Colorado by judicial district and county versus the population in each district except Denver (2 nd Judicial District), with a total for the rest of the state of 21,475 such orders in 1998.
Table 36: Number of temporary and permanent restraining orders issued in the State of Colorado during fiscal 1998 by judicial district and county.
|
Judicial district
Colorado Counties
|
1998 Census
Estimate
|
Restraining
orders
|
Percent of
restraining
orders
|
Percent of
population
|
Orders per
10,000 citizens
|
|
First
Gilpin and Jefferson
|
504,986
total
|
2,231
total
|
10.4%
|
14.6%
|
44
|
|
Second
Denver (not included in totals)
|
498,402
|
145
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
Third
Huerfano and Las Animas
|
21,514
total
|
176
total
|
0.8%
|
0.6%
|
82
|
|
Fourth
El Paso and Teller
|
511,272
total
|
7,152
total
|
33.3%
|
14.7%
|
140
|
|
Fifth
Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit
|
67,858
total
|
180
total
|
0.8%
|
2.0%
|
27
|
|
Sixth
Archuleta, La Plata, and San Juan
|
50,199
total
|
281
total
|
1.3%
|
1.5%
|
56
|
|
Seventh
Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel
|
79,350
total
|
857
total
|
4.0%
|
2.3%
|
108
|
|
Eighth
Jackson and Larimer
|
232,625
total
|
988
total
|
4.6%
|
6.7%
|
42
|
|
Ninth
Garfield, Pitkin, and Rio Blanco
|
58,985
total
|
402
total
|
1.9%
|
1.7%
|
68
|
|
Tenth
Pueblo
|
134,919
|
761
|
3.5%
|
3.9%
|
56
|
|
Eleventh
Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, and Park
|
76,240
total
|
387
total
|
1.8%
|
2.2%
|
51
|
|
Twelfth
Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla,
Mineral, Rio Grande, and Saguache
|
44,394
total
|
354
total
|
1.7%
|
1.3%
|
80
|
|
Thirteenth
Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips,
Sedgwick, Washington, and Yuma
|
71,137
total
|
433
total
|
2.0%
|
2.1%
|
61
|
|
Fourteenth
Grand, Moffat, and Routt
|
40,153
total
|
177
total
|
0.8%
|
1.2%
|
44
|
|
Fifteenth
Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers
|
22,000
total
|
185
total
|
0.9%
|
0.6%
|
84
|
|
Sixteenth
Bent, Crowley, and Otero
|
30,766
total
|
284
total
|
1.3%
|
0.9%
|
93
|
|
Seventeenth
Adams
|
323,427
|
1,722
|
8.0%
|
9.3%
|
53
|
|
Eighteenth
Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln
(Aurora Municipal Court N/A)
|
638,326
total
|
1,572
total is suspect
|
7.3%?
|
18.4%
|
Suspect
|
|
Nineteenth
Weld
|
159,501
|
1,550
|
7.2%
|
4.6%
|
97
|
|
Twentieth
Boulder
|
266,671
|
656
|
3.1%
|
7.7%
|
25
|
|
Twenty first
Mesa
|
112,899
|
850
|
4.0%
|
3.3%
|
75
|
|
Twenty second
Dolores and Montezuma
|
24,456
total
|
132
total
|
0.6%
|
0.7%
|
54
|
|
Totals (minus Denver)
|
3,470,565
|
21,475
|
Statewide average: 62
Mean of judicial districts: 67
Standard deviation 28
(except Denver and Aurora)
|
|
Population: U.S. Census Bureau
Restraining orders: Colorado State Court
Administrator's Office and Denver Post.
|
Top
Given an estimated population of 3,470,565 for Colorado (does not include Denver) in 1998, each judicial district (minus Denver) should have issued 62 ±28 (one standard deviation) restraining orders per 10,000 residents if reasonably uniform standards are being applied. Note that such a large standard deviation, in and of itself, suggests that equal protection is not being afforded all citizens of Colorado.
According to the Colorado Legislative Council Staff, 12,166 people were charged with DV in FY1998. 79% of those charged were male, or roughly 9,600 men. Of the people charged with domestic violence in Colorado in FY1998, 4,331 were actually convicted and that appears to be largely because they pled guilty or no contest. We suspect the gender bias for convictions is even stronger than for arrests but do not have sufficient data to make an estimate.
As shown in subsequent sections, these initial results have persisted in following years.
One frightening trend is the extraordinary increase in the issuance of restraining orders as shown: (<Table">http://www.dvmen.org/dv-99.htm#pgfId-1105719>Table> Table 49)
Sections
Summary Of Protection Order Abuse by Charles E. Corry, Ph.D.
Also, in 2003 court cases for criminal domestic violence increased 5% to 16,159, yet domestic violence incidents reported to police decreased 2% to 7,108 from the previous year. No public official I have spoken with has been able to explain why or how there are more than twice as many DV criminal cases in court than DV incidents reported to the police, nor how the police incidents can be going down while the number of DV court cases is rapidly increasing.
One surprising trend became clear in 2003. Divorce filings in Colorado courts have consistently decreased from 63 per 10,000 citizens in 1999 to 56 per 10,000 in 2003 (<Table">http://web.archive.org/web/20060222103958/http://www.dvmen.org/dv-100.htm#pgfId-1109000>Table> Table 53).
It might reasonably be expected that with restraining order filings and domestic violence cases increasing at an extraordinary rate that divorces should also be increasing. To find that isn't happening was puzzling.
An obvious way to avoid a divorce is not to marry in the first place.
For most of the fifty-plus years between 1950 and 2002, the marriage rate in Colorado averaged around 100 per 10,000
citizens per year but has been steadily declining since 1994. One might reasonably suspect that increases in restraining orders and DV charges have a depressing affect on men's willingness to marry. These relations are clear in the plot:
The divorce rate then appears to be declining because there are fewer couples getting married. And in 2003 the marriage and restraining order rates appear to intersect although additional data, as always, are desirable.
Clearly, the implication is that as charges of domestic violence and abuse increase, the number of marriages declines. That finding agrees with common sense. Marriages are built on trust and a restraining order or DV allegation destroys any trust in one's partner.
There are, of course, many other factors contributing to the decline of marriage in today's society, e.g., the easy availability
of sex without getting married. Women also blame men, as usual, for having a fear of commitment. But it is a rare man today who has not been caught up in the nightmare of a divorce, allegations of domestic violence, a restraining order, or faced charges of sexual harassment; or at least has a close friend, co-worker, parent, sibling, or other relative who has been through the horror of our present "legal" system.
With the rate of restraining orders exceeding the marriage rate, does anyone think our society can long survive under these laws and practices?
If unsupported allegations of domestic violence and abuse can be freely made in divorce and custody disputes with the law strongly favoring the female, then a man has to be functionally insane to marry and a drooling idiot to sire a child. By not marrying, and using modern birth control methods, our best and brightest largely avoid the nightmares our family laws and
courts have become. As a result, family laws in Colorado have become a breeding experiment in stupidity.
Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.
President, Equal Justice Foundation http://www.ejfi.org/
455 Bear Creek Road
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906-5820
Telephone: (719) 520-1089
Domestic violence against men in Colorado: http://www.dvmen.org/
Personal home page: http://corry.ws/
Curriculum vitae: http://www.marquiswhoswho.net/charleselmocorry/Default.aspx
The Equal Justice Foundation is a member-supported, non-profit
501(c)(3) corporation.
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