Identifying Armed Respondents to Domestic Violence Restraining Orders and Recovering Their Firearms: Process Evaluation of an Initiative in California

摘要

Objectives. We evaluated a law enforcement initiative to screen respondents to domestic violence restraining orders for firearm ownership or possession and recover their firearms. Methods. The initiative was implemented in San Mateo and Butte counties in California from 2007 through 2010. We used descriptive methods to evaluate the screening process and recovery effort in each county, relying on records for individual cases. Results. Screening relied on an archive of firearm transactions, court records, and petitioner interviews; no single source was adequate. Screening linked 525 respondents (17.7%) in San Mateo County to firearms; 405 firearms were recovered from 119 (22.7%) of them. In Butte County, 88 (31.1%) respondents were linked to firearms; 260 firearms were recovered from 45 (51.1%) of them. Nonrecovery occurred most often when orders were never served or respondents denied having firearms. There were no reports of serious violence or injury. Conclusions. Recovering firearms from persons subject to domestic violence restraining orders is possible. We have identified design and implementation changes that may improve the screening process and the yield from recovery efforts. Larger implementation trials are needed. Intimate partner violence is a significant threat to the public’s health and safety. Women are at greatest risk. An estimated 1127 women were murdered and some 605?000 were assaulted by their intimate partners in 2011 in the United States. 1,2 The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey suggests that 35.6% of women in the United States have experienced intimate partner violence at some time in their lives. 3 Firearms figure prominently in this violence. Most intimate partner homicides involve firearms, 4 and women are at least twice as likely to be murdered by intimate partners using firearms as by strangers using any weapon. 5 Abusers with firearms are 5 to 8 times as likely to kill their victims as are those without firearms. 6,7 Abusers with firearms also use them in nonlethal ways. About 3.5% of women report that an intimate partner has threatened them with a firearm. 8 Firearm-owning abusers are 7.8 times as likely as are others to threaten their partners with firearms and no less likely to do so with other weapons. 9 Among California women in shelters, two thirds of those who came from households with firearms reported that their partner used a firearm against them, most often as a threat. 10 To help prevent such violence, federal statute prohibits the purchase and possession of firearms by persons subject to domestic violence restraining orders issued at hearings where both parties are present. By 2008, 10 states required and 20 states authorized courts to order respondents to surrender their firearms for the duration of the order. 11 Many states extend these prohibitions to include ex parte orders. In California, domestic violence restraining order respondents must surrender their firearms to a law enforcement agency or sell them to a licensed firearms retailer within 24 hours after the order is served. They must file a receipt with the court documenting compliance within 48 hours. Since 2007, respondents have been required to surrender their firearms immediately if a law enforcement officer makes a demand for them. 12 Firearm prohibitions for domestic violence offenders, beyond the prohibition on purchases from licensed retailers, 13 have rarely been enforced. 14,15 In this study, we report a process assessment of a pilot initiative in San Mateo County and Butte County, California, during which domestic violence restraining order respondents were screened for firearms ownership or possession and an effort was made, at the time restraining orders were served or soon thereafter, to recover firearms from respondents believed to have them.