Domestic Violence and Stereotypes in Mecklenburg County

Domestic Violence and Stereotypes in Mecklenburg County

Brittany T. Anderson
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Approximately 1.3 million woman and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an
intimate partner annually in the United States (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). This statement,
made by the National Institute of Justice, is horrifying. An intimate partner should be someone a
person can rely on and be comfortable around. These men and woman have been harmed by
people they most likely trusted and cared for very deeply. Even without the statistics, one can
make the assumption through news reports and other means that domestic violence is prominent
in our developing society. I took this assignment as an opportunity to investigate domestic
violence court and try to learn some of what the accused and accusers really experience with the
justice system.
I had few preconceived ideas of what domestic violence court would be like before I
observed one. As I walked into the room I was quickly ushered to the benches on the left side of
the room. Once I was seated, I scanned the room and I realized that all the men were on the right
side of the room and all the woman were on the left side. Noticing this made me feel very
uncomfortable. I understood that for safety reasons this was probably a wise decision, but I
almost felt like less of a human because they had so abruptly put me in a category and told me
the only place I was able to sit. While waiting for the court proceedings to begin, I noted several
things. I observed that this seating can cause problems for families. For instance, an elderly
grandmother was not permitted to sit with her grandson, who was there to care of her. In
addition, I noticed that the ethnic population in the courtroom was decidedly black. During the
entire time I spent observing, only 5 white people came and sat in the gallery.
Once the judge, an African American woman in her sixties, entered the courtroom, it was
called to order and cases began to be heard one after another. The defendant would be escorted
out of a side door in shackles and stand by his or her appointed attorney. The attorney would
explain the case and the character of the person as the judge read their file. After asking

a few questions the judge would spend roughly 30 seconds making a decision and then announce
her ruling and send the defendant on their way. Although I understand that this process of
allowing one person (the judge) to make decisions, lowers transaction costs greatly, it does not
seem to be very democratic. The question remains: What if the judge is in a particularly bad
mood and they let that affect their rulings?
In addition to observing the overall proceedings of the courtroom, I paid close attention
to the accusations that had been made against each defendant. The majority of the male
defendants were said to have committed at least one offense of abuse towards a woman as well
as other various accusations such as threats towards others. One defendant in particular stands
out to me; this case involved a white man who had been living with his girlfriend and their child.
When his lawyer spoke for him he sounded like an upstanding man who had made a mistake of
threatening his girlfriend while they were in a heated argument. After his lawyer spoke the
prosecuting attorney for the plaintiff explained how this man had held a knife to the womans
back and threatened her. He had also slapped her and the attorney brought pictures of the
womans face, which showed a cut from the force of his slap. The judge decided to let him out on
bail if they could confirm that he had someone to stay with in Mecklenburg County until his next
court appearance in a few weeks. It astonished me how one attorney could only highlight the
good things about his character and not touch on the whole reason he was there. That being said,
I was equally or more astonished at what he and others were being accused of that day. My heart
goes out to the victims who were subjected to such violence. No one should have to go through
something like this, especially from someone you are so close to.
It is a common stereotype that many black people will have relationships and lives that
fall apart. In light of my observation of the domestic violence court, I interviewed an African

American girl, I barely knew, about what it was like to be a minority in our society. While
speaking with her, I learned a few things that I had never thought of before our meeting. One of
which was that although she is black she has always been attracted to white men. She explained
how most white men are attracted to white girls and due to this she has had many issues finding a
fulfilling relationship. In my experience, it has not been uncommon to hear about two people
from different races getting married. However, personally I had not considered the idea of an
African American being solely attracted to another race (and that goes for any race). Prior to our
conversation I always thought people who married outside of their race just happened to meet
and fall in love, not that they were actively seeking it. In response to a question I asked about
challenges she experiences on a regular basis, she told me a story about one of her coworkers
who called her ghetto because she got in an argument with someone. Initially that did not
make sense to me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that many people have this
idea of black people that incorporates violence. With our societys ideas of what races are most
prone to commit domestic violence, we can see that many people assume that blacks are from
low income areas if they appear to be stirring up trouble. If someone was white and was having
an argument my assumption is that the coworkers comment would have been different.
I learned an incredible amount from my time at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse and
in my interview; such as the fact that a majority of the cases I saw dealt with African Americans.
This along with my interview made me realize in a much more personal way that there are still
very real stereotypes and judgement towards African Americans. Although the police were not
necessarily arresting these men and woman because of their race, it still begs the question of why
there are obviously more black people being arrested? It saddens me to hear stories of anyone
being harmed or mistreated. Both in my interview and the domestic violence court I gained a
new view of the reality of human life being degraded.

Works Cited
Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (2000, November). Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and
Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against

Women Survey. Retrieved February 03, 2016, from

http://www.nij.gov/publications/pages/publication-detail.aspx?ncjnumber=183781