Types of Domestic Violence

(The content below was transcribed from an interview done with Acacia Law. We think you'll find it much easier
and more enjoyable to read this way.)

Interviewer: So, all right, so domestic violence besides hitting each other, screaming at each other what else can it be?

Acacia Law: The other thing that it can cover besides violence is disturbing the peace. For example, if you have two people who live together, who are screaming at each other, disturbing the neighbors then that can act of domestic violence, even though level of conversation was not directed at these neighbors, the inherent nature of the contact, the audio of what's going on there can lead them to believe that some sort of serious argument or domestic violence incident is going on or is under way.

And the other second, large area involves what's called criminal damage. Criminal damage is really related, more accurately, to any sort of physical object which is broken or damaged during the course of the burglary or the domestic violence.

Interviewer: Wait a minute. So, I guess to take it to the extreme, if me and my wife are arguing and yelling and I take something of mine, I don't know, throw it and it breaks on the floor, I don't throw it at her or anything and the police get called, it's possible that I could be accused of criminal damage, even breaking my own thing and domestic violence?

Acacia Law: Yes. As a matter of fact, I have this happen all the time. Because so many domestic violence cases involve spouses, it is not uncommon for one spouse to take some money or property from the other. People don't understand that.

For example, if they're married and one of them, say, knocks a candle stick on to the floor during the course of an argument, even though that person has a vested legal interest in that particular item, to wit in this case a candle, it's jointly owned by the other person. And since it was damaged or broken it is crime and it does not matter whether the other person either approves or it or not or doesn't care.

If it gets in the hands of law enforcement, they're not interested in expressing any sentiment as to how a particular defendant views the case. They're looking at it from the perspective of we have joint community property, what's his is hers and vice-versa.

If he breaks a lamp in the middle of a domestic verbal dispute, even though it may technically belong to him or was given to him as a present after he was married, it is joint property and that person also can be pursued or they can pursue other means of charges if the damage is serious enough. It's as easy as breaking a candle, I have had five or six police officers come out and one person go to jail.

What happens is that a married couple may not want to pursue charges for something as stupid as breaking a plate, but if the police are involved and they're there they are going to investigate because that's their job.

And they have no problems in charging someone with criminal damage, which again is not considered a violent crime because it's not a crime against a person.

But still it is close enough under the domestic violence statue because the assumption is there was either an argument that was serious enough to suggest that there maybe physical confrontations or it could mean that the person is simply not going to respond and ignores the incident. Oftentimes spouses, if they're kicked out of their house because of the charge of domestic violence, they have the right to go back there and collect what they believe is their property, but fortunately the property is 50/50.

So any type of damage done in terms of retracting that property, since the matter would be under the jurisdiction of the criminal court, makes them guilty.