Evaluation of Efforts to Implement No-Drop Policies – Two Central Values in Conflict, Final Report

This study was conducted in 2001 to determine if prosecution without the victim's cooperation is feasible with appropriate increases in resources. Researchers Smith, Davis, Nickles, and Davies found that many survivors thought that it was a good thing that their cases had been prosecuted, despite nearly half initially opposing prosecution. Their study also resulted in the following "lessons learned about no-drop:" (1) no-drop is more a philosophy than a strict policy of prosecuting domestic violence cases, (2) adopting a no-drop policy can boost convictions dramatically, (3) implementing no-drop requires significant case screening up front, (4) a successful no-drop policy requires judges who are on board with the idea of admitting hearsay or excited utterances from victims and statements from defendants or documentation of prior bad acts, (5) no-drop is very expensive, and (6) prosecution may be seen by victims as beneficial, even if those victims who initially did not want any criminal justice action past arrest.