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2 Alaska Just. F. 1 (1978)

handle is hein.journals/aljufor2 and id is 1 raw text is: Alaa JustkIce Fii14 111... IN THIS ISSUE: * * *0 e New Interrogations & Confessions Series An Anchorage Dispute Center Ketchikan Youth Advocate Program Citizens Project Looks at Justice System Volume 2 Number 1 January, 1978 DI Dispute Center WiIll Be New Approach To Violence Ketchikan Youth Advocate Pro - gram Offers Fast Assistance By Lt. Ben L. Neff Ketchikan Police Department & Phyllis Bardonski Division of Social Services Until recently, Ketchikan, like many communities in Alaska, did not have an effective system for responding approp- riately to youth -in crises, especially in those cases occurring after the close of the business day. Historically, law en- forcement personnel have carried the bur- den of this responsibility to the extent their operational resources permitted. Be- cause police and troopers did not have immediate access to alternative place- ment facilities when they were confront- ed with other emergencies, status offen- ders were frequently detained for such of- fenses as Minor in Possession of Alco- hol by Consumption, Curfew, Wayward & Disobedient, and Truancy. A detention home was the most convenient place to hold a youngster if the police were un- able to locate family members. More importantly, there were no effective means for dealing with chronic status offenders. For a community its size (accord- ing to the 1974 Census, it is an island community of 6,000 serving a total popu- lation of 17,912), Ketchikan has a wide range of services available to deal with status offenders during the daytime hours. These services include social vel- fare agencies such as Social Services, Youth Advocate Program, Mental Health, (Continued on Page 2) A Report From The Alaska Judicial Council A husband periodically gets drunk and threatens his wife and children. One night, when his threats are particularly vehement, his wife attempts to defend herself with a kitchen knife. The hus- band seizes the knife throws it away and beats her severely with his hands. A young woman is badly beaten up by her drunken ex-boyfriend. When the police arrive, she tells them that this is a regular occurrence. However, she refuses to press charges against her at- tacker, insisting, I only want him to leave me alone. A landlord goes to his tenant's residence to demand payment for two months back rent. The tenant refuses, claiming that the landlord has failed adequately to maintain the apartment. The landlord assaults and seriously injures the tenant. The above histories were taken by researchers for the Alaska Judicial Council from actual reported cases in the files of the Anchorage Police Department over the past year. According to a recent Judical Council report, violent incidents like these are very often direct outgrowths of conflicts between relatives, friends, lovers, and other people who are in a continuing personal relationship with each other. The sig- nificance of these personal or domestic incidents to the general Anchorage crime scene is apparent from the following facts contained in the report: * Half of all assault and battery incident reports involved people in the same household. In 90 percent of the assault and battery incidents the aggressor and the victim were previously acquainted. * In 70 percent of the assault and battery, domestic disturbance and disorderly conduct incidents the victim was a woman. A substantial percentage of these reported cases never result in any arrest and even fewer culminate in prosecution. According to Michael L. Rubinstein, Executive Di- rector of the Alaska Judicial Council, this is because a police officer in Alaska cannot legally arrest someone for a misdemeanor unless he actually observes the crime in pro- gress, unless a citizen is willing to sign a formal complaint. Frequently, precisely be- cause the disputants have a personal relationship with each other, the injured party simply refuses to press charges. (Continued on Paqe 6)

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