COUNTY TARGETS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Helping the abuser, ending the cycle of violence and satisfying the victim are the goals of a new domestic violence policy implemented this week by the Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney.

The new policy gives victims of domestic violence, usually wives, the option of dropping charges against their spouses if the spouse agrees to admit his criminal offense in writing and follow special probation requirements, including taking classes about temper management or related subjects.

Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said many of the women victims of abuse want the charges dropped for financial reasons.

"A lot of times this person causing the problem is the meal ticket," he said, "and women have begged us not to file charges. In essence, we were victimizing them twice, but we couldn't let that cycle of violence continue."

The prosecutor can pursue charges in domestic violence cases even with an unwilling victim. But Swingle said he is reluctant in some of the 200 cases he sees yearly because the offender means so much to the victim financially.

"And if the husband was given a fine for the offense," he said, "she would end up paying it. Or if he went to jail, she would lose that paycheck. So we were victimizing them twice."

With the new policy, Swingle said the offender must admit his guilt in writing to the prosecutor. The offender also must agree to attend classes or programs that deal with temper management, alcohol abuse or other subjects pertaining to the case. The classes and programs are approved by a probation officer who provides close supervision during a two-year probationary period.

With the completion of probation, the offender's record remains clean.

If the offender violates a condition of the probation by not attending a class or having another violent episode, then the prosecutor goes to the filing cabinet, retrieves the admission of guilt written by the offender and files the appropriate charges.

"Everyone -- the victim and the offender -- knows going into this what will happen," Swingle said.

But if the victim wants to pursue charges from the beginning, the prosecutor's office will proceed with a criminal case. The new policy gives the option of dropping charges to the victims, not the suspects.

Swingle said the policy evolved from the recent rise in domestic violence cases his office has seen. To his knowledge, the county's policy is the first of its kind in Missouri.

"We're kind of the pilot program," he said. "The worst-case scenario is that we go back to the way we were doing it."