Veterans and domestic violence

Our domestic violence laws were developed during the early stages of the Women's Liberation Movement as part of its strategy to alter long-held cultural attitudes about violence against women. Advocates across the country fought long and hard to force police and prosecutors to treat victims of domestic violence with the same dignity and respect shown to victims of other crimes. Laws based on the feminist theory that men used violence to exert power and control over women were passed. Today, tough domestic violence laws are in place throughout the country. It is time we look at these laws with an eye toward fair and respectful treatment of injured veterans and their families. Those who served in the military, who act out as a result of an injury sustained while serving, deserve more than having their families split apart with restraining orders, removal of their children by social services agencies, and incarceration. Along with their families, they should be shepherded into healing by way of separate court proceedings.

This article is not written with the intention of suggesting we excuse violent behavior. Rather, its intent is to encourage thinking outside the traditional power and control box. Obviously there are veterans who are abusive bullies, but there are also some who have been injured while serving in the military, and who have personality changes as a result of those injuries.

When the Public Began Responding to Domestic Violence

Before the start of the battered women's protection movement in the late 1960s, the criminal justice system treated domestic violence as a private matter in which the government had no business interfering. At shift briefings, police watch commanders told their troops something to the effect of "Remember, if you catch a fish, you gotta clean it." Violence against women by husbands, boyfriends and lovers remained shrouded in silence. Both law enforcement and society treated the situation as the couple's business, and no one else's.

In the 1970s, the criminalization of wife-beating became part of a larger strategy of the Women's Liberation Movement to alter cultural attitudes about violence against women. In Oakland in 1976, a group of domestic violence victims filed a class action against the Oakland Police Department. Scott v. Hart, No. C-76-2395 (N.D. Cal. filed Oct. 28, 1976). In New York City in 1979, 12 battered wives brought another class action against the court, the probation department, the police, and other officials. Bruno v. Codd, 393 N.E.2d 976, 977 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1979). They claimed courts and police engaged in a pattern of conduct that was designed to dissuade battered women from calling the police or going to court.

Eventually, America stood ready to recognize domestic violence as a problem requiring legal attention, and major legal responses took place. Laws were passed and training was given to police and prosecutors. Batterers' treatment programs emerged during the 1980s. Laws mandated, or at least authorized, the warrantless arrest of a domestic violence suspect. By 1981, all but four states had enacted statutes designed to abate domestic violence. Civil restraining orders became commonplace. Battered women's shelters, counselors, legal services and support groups emerged in many communities.

Health Issues Resulting from Military Service

Psychiatric casualties of combat are as old as war itself. Post-traumatic stress disorder was officially acknowledged as a disabling psychiatric injury in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1987. PTSD is recognized as a human response to trauma that is beyond the capacity of a particular individual to manage. It may result from one catastrophic event, a barrage of traumatic events, or constantly performing actions that run counter to one's moral or ethical beliefs. Although PTSD is considered a psychiatric disorder, physical symptoms and alterations occur throughout the entire body. Changes occur to brain tissue, the immune system, hormonal balance and cardiovascular function.

Soldiers also suffer traumatic brain injuries from explosive blasts. These physical injuries are common among our 2 million combatants who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A brain injury can result in sleeping issues, headaches, anger, irritability, mood swings and other symptoms, including violent behavior. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bombs and explosions can cause unique patterns of injury seldom seen outside combat. Explosions in confined spaces such as large vehicles are associated with greater morbidity. Aggression is one of the most common consequences of traumatic brain injury. Damage to certain parts of the brain can result in severe personality changes.

In addition to PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury), our veterans have other health disorders such as major depressions and intermittent explosive disorders. Today soldiers survive injuries that probably would have killed them during prior wars.

Domestic Violence Related to Military Service Injuries

Re-entry into marriage, family, jobs and the community presents challenges for returning soldiers, especially those who face additional deployments. Actions that are expected and normal in the military are often unacceptable and sometimes criminal in civilian life. Logically connected to PTSD are anger, irritability, hypervigilance, increased startle response, depression and emotional numbing, all of which can lead to criminal behavior. Home is usually the place where the stress, frustration and turmoil of adjusting to civilian life negatively play out.

The impact of military service can manifest itself on the lives of everyone in a veteran's family in countless ways. Military experience, particularly multiple deployments, strains marriages and other relationships. Since the U.S. military began fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, approximately 2 million military children have seen a parent deployed in harm's way. When a service member has PTSD, TBI or any other military-related stress disorder, its effects can reverberate throughout the family. The parent is unable to fully engage with the children.

A typical scenario involves the nonmilitary spouse attempting to re-establish intimacy, either physically or by asking questions about wartime experiences. Unable or unprepared for such intimacy, the veteran sometimes responds physically or with threats. The spouse seeks a restraining order, and a social services agency becomes involved when there are children in the home. The veteran is not treated as an injured warrior, but as a batterer who needs to be separated from the family.

Military families are exceptional in their ability to cope and adapt to the frequent moves and deployments required by the military. However, their ability to adapt may, sadly, miscarry. Some remain quiet and aloof to volatile emotions and outbursts involved in the service member's deployment-related problems. When family troubles begin, that special quality of military families to keep things running smoothly despite deployment stress, may inadvertently result in major problems. Situations that might not get out of hand in nonmilitary families may reach a boiling point in the military family and result in ultimately splitting up the family with restraining orders or the removal of children.

An alarming 60 percent of families of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and who were referred for mental health evaluations, have had an episode of domestic abuse. Suicides by former and current military personnel comprise 20 percent of all U.S. suicides, and 32 percent of those suicides have been precipitated by a problem with an intimate partner.

Professionals realize that military families deserve respect and assistance. In recognition of this reality, the Department of Defense's Task Force on Mental Health concluded that when mental health is at issue, service members and their families need early intervention and treatment.

Separate Court Procedures Needed for Veterans Whose Domestic Violence Is Related to Military Service Injuries

Our courts have evolved significantly since the days when battered women had to force our criminal justice system to treat them with the same regard given other victims of violent crimes. Also gone are the days when courts were purely adjudicative decision-making tribunals. Today, many courts are problem-solving institutions. Increasingly, they are structured toward referral of matters to social agencies and other institutions. Courts now recognize that problems involving family dysfunction, addiction, and domestic violence often prove to be resistant to conventional court solutions, and they have developed sophisticated ways to deal with cases involving alcohol, drug abuse, mental health problems, and school truancy. Included in the modern, non-adjudicative approach to proceeding with cases are Veterans Treatment Courts and Veterans Diversion Courts.

Not all veterans who inflict domestic violence are acting out as a result of their military injuries. Some are the power-and-control types that domestic violence laws are meant to target. To borrow a word used in the medical field, a triage must be performed. The justice system has the tools to distinguish a brutish thug committing domestic violence from an injured veteran acting out due to an injury. Some veteran batterers should be kept in the criminal courts. Others, however, should be diverted to a specially designed court when their violence results from physical or mental injuries sustained in the military. Goals should be toward keeping the family together, addressing emotional and safety issues, reducing the children's trauma and fears of abandonment, and holding onto existing social support of family and friends.

Under the proposed new model, once the initial sorting or triage decision has been made, and the veteran has been diverted from criminal prosecution, the whole family must be placed in the skilled hands of mental health professionals. Those experts will be able to determine pressure felt by a victim and report any pressure to the judge and team working on the case. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has made the care and support of military families one of its highest priorities. Its Office of Public Affairs declared: "We can never do enough for the families of the men and women who protect and defend our nation, and we are committed to improving and expanding our services throughout a broad range of programs. More often than not, military families are the first line of support and care for our veterans, and VA stands ready to assist in that endeavor." The team approach used in Veterans Treatment Courts is instructive with regard to how criminal justice, mental health, and VA experts can successfully develop a model for managing the cases of veterans charged with domestic violence. Considering the involvement of the VA with existing Veterans Treatment Courts throughout California as well as the VA's stated commitment to military families, there seems little doubt the VA would be ready, willing and able to assist California courts. Working together, federal and state personnel are quite capable of developing an alternative domestic violence treatment model for its wounded warriors and their families.