U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime
January 2002
NCJ 189190

Reviewed by Loree Cook-Daniels

Protective orders are a tool many adult protective services and other victim advocates use to help adult abuse victims. The January 2002 Office for Victims of Crime bulletin entitled, “Enforcement of Protective Orders,” defines them as “generally includ[ing] provisions restricting contact; prohibiting abuse, intimidation, or harassment; determining child custody and visitation issues; mandating offender counseling; and prohibiting firearm possession and provisions for other relief the court deems appropriate.”

This brief is not designed to give workers directions on either how to obtain the orders or how to secure enforcement of them. It would, however, be useful to policy makers who are trying to change laws and regulations to make protective orders more effective.

The document reviews several ways states have tried to address protective orders enforcement, including: criminal sanctions for violation, statewide central registries, and full faith and credit provisions designed to permit the enforcement of orders issued by other states.

Under a current issues section, an existing national registry of civil restraining and abuse prevention orders is discussed. In the fall of 1998, fewer than 100,000 orders were listed there, about 5% of the estimated 2 million existing orders. Other current issues discussed in the bulletin are how states are consolidating their procedures for various types of orders, and how they handle protective order renewals.

Because this is just a 7-page survey, the bulletin does not contain a lot of detail. However, it does name some specific states’ procedures along with their citations, which should help policy makers desiring to improve their state’s policy find the precedents and experiences they need.

The bulletin is available for downloading at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/
bulletins/legalseries/bulletin4/welcome.html