Court Decision Making in Domestic Violence Homicides in South Carolina

Kaitlyn Menze, Criminal Justice

Dr. Christi Metcalfe, Criminology & Criminal Justice, Faculty Mentor

Background
Nationally, domestic violence is an alarming issue, especially when these cases escalate to homicide. The CDC has stated
that nationally, about 1 in 4 women and about 1 in 7 men have experienced “severe physical violence from an intimate
partner in their lifetime” (Smith et al., 2017, p. 120-121). In situations where there is domestic violence taking place and
the abuser has access to a gun, women are nearly five times as likely to be murdered. (Campbell et al., 2003). Not only
are these statistics from the nation concerning, but so is the domestic violence data for South Carolina. According to the
Violence Policy Center, South Carolina ranks among the top in the U.S. for females murdered by males in a single
victim/single offender incident with a rate of 1.68 homicides per 100,000 females in the population (Violence Policy
Center, 2020). Domestic violence cases entering the court system are on the rise in the country, partly due to new policies
that work to prosecute these cases aggressively (Henning & Feder, 2005; Kutateladze & Leimberg, 2018; Messing, 2014).
As the amount of domestic violence cases entering the court system rises, including domestic homicide cases, researchers
have taken notice as to how limited the research is regarding domestic violence case processing and how factors of the
case affect this processing. This is especially true in South Carolina. The domestic violence homicide cases are
particularly important to study because of both their extreme violent nature.

Research Question
How are domestic violence homicide cases handled within the 14th circuit Solicitor’s office and what factors influence
how these cases are processed? How are these cases different from non-homicide cases?

Project goals and objectives

The goal of this project is twofold: (1) to study domestic violence case processing in South Carolina in relation to cases
involving homicide and (2) to learn further about qualitative coding methods. This proposal is part of a larger project led
by Dr. Christi Metcalfe, my mentor, and funded by the National Institute of Justice that focuses on the case processing
pipeline when it comes to domestic violence cases. Regarding my role, I will be looking into the cases that involved
homicide and explore what happened in each part of the case processing pipeline. I will be mapping the steps in the
pipeline (see Figure 1), as well as qualitatively coding the supporting facts and police incident reports to evaluate key
characteristics of female homicide cases that influenced the outcomes of these cases.

Project significance
There is currently a large gap in existing research when it comes to applying a multiple decision point process when
looking at domestic violence case processing. Additionally, there is a lack of data in the Southern area of the United
States on domestic violence, despite South Carolina having one of the highest domestic violence rates in the country.
Specifically, when looking at homicides, there is limited data on qualitative characteristics that influence how the case
travels through the court and the different decisions that are made at each point. The study intends on filling these gaps.
This project will involve understanding the case processing pipeline for domestic violence homicides in South Carolina’s
14th circuit, as well as explore how different factors in the case influence this case processing pipeline, including victim
characteristics (sex, race, ethnicity, etc.) and circumstances of the incident.

Methodology
This project is in partnership with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in South Carolina and is funded under a grant by the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ). A mixed methods approach will be used combining quantitative and qualitative
information to explore domestic violence homicides. The data will be derived from case information involving three
domestic violence homicides in the 14th circuit from the years 2017 and 2018. I will be working alongside my mentor, Dr.
Metcalfe, and a doctoral student involved with the project.

In accordance with my research question, I will first draw upon the example pipeline in Figure 1 to map out exactly how
the three homicide cases went through the court process. Within the pipeline exercise, I will consider all the different
outcomes of these cases in accordance with Figure 1 and how these steps differ from domestic violence cases that do not
involve homicide (the rest of the research team will be working on the map for these cases). In addition, I will be able to
determine the average time between each of the steps in Figure 1 and the average time from arrest to case outcome. Then,
I will qualitatively code the supporting files (which are numerous) tied to each of these cases to understand the specific
factors of the case that contributed to the case’s outcomes. Coding these files will allow me to contextually understand
what happened in the case. The larger project has been approved by IRB, and I will complete CITI training.

Figure 1. Case Processing Pipeline Analysis

(Metcalfe & Koons-Witt, 2021)

Project timeline
Task Description Project Months

August September October November December May

Literature review

Further research on qualitative coding

Complete CITI training

Pipeline analysis for homicide cases

Qualitative coding and analysis of

homicide case supporting documents

Write final report for Magellan

UofSC Discover Day poster

presentation

Final products and Dissemination

With the completion of my work, I will write a final report for the Magellan program that goes over the part I played as
part within this research project. Although I will conduct my research in the Fall of 2023, I plan to present my final
project at USC Discover Day, which is in the Spring of 2024.

Personal statement
For over 25 years, my father was involved in the New York Police Department. His experiences within the police
department and all that came with it led me to become interested in the field of criminology. Currently, I am a criminal
justice major at the University of South Carolina with the goal of one day going to law school. One of my main interests
is in criminal law, including the prosecution of criminal cases, thus leading me to be involved in the research being
conducted by Dr. Christi Metcalfe.
 References

Campbell, J. C., Webster, D., Koziol-McLain, J., Block, C., Campbell, D., Curry, M. A., Gary, F., Glass, N., McFarlane,
J., Sachs, C., Sharps, P., Ulrich, Y., Wilt, S. A., Manganello, J., Xu, X., Schollenberger, J., Frye, V., & Laughon,
K. (2003). Risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships: results from a multisite case control study. American
journal of public health, 93(7), 1089–1097. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.93.7.1089

Henning, K. & Feder, L. (2005). Criminal prosecution of domestic violence offenses: An investigation of factors
predictive of court outcomes. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 32, 612-642.

Kutateladze, B. L. & Leimberg, A. (2018). The influence of type of defense counsel on prosecutorial and judicial decision
making in domestic violence cases. Crime & Delinquency. doi: 10.1177/0011128718806901.

Messing, J. T. (2014). Evidence-based prosecution of intimate partner violence in the post-Crawford era: A single-city
study of the factors leading to prosecution. Crime & Delinquency, 60, 238-260.

Metcalfe, C., & Koons-Witt, B. (2021). Court decision-making in domestic violence cases: An analysis of the case
processing pipeline in South Carolina. Award No. 10011573. National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 1-29.

Smith, S. G., Chen, J., Basile, K. C., Gilbert, L.K., Merrick, M. T., Patel, N., Walling, M., & Jain, A. (2017). The national
intimate partner and sexual violence survey (NISVS): 2010-2012 state report. National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/NISVS-StateReportBook.pdf

Violence Policy Center. (2020). When men murder women: An analysis of 2018 homicide data. Retrieved from
http://vpc.org/studies/wmmw2018.pdf