Petitions to Detain for Domestic Violence Cases

Under the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA), individuals charged with domestic violence offenses are eligible for detention based on either a public safety consideration or a willful flight consideration. The public safety standard allows for the pretrial detention of individuals charged with specific, detainable offenses who are found to pose a specific, real, and present threat to any person. The willful flight standard allows for the pretrial detention of individuals shown to be a risk for willful flight from prosecution.

The PFA requires that individuals be released on their own recognizance (with or without supervision), unless the prosecutor files a motion to detain an individual pretrial and the judge determines that detention is necessary. If detention is granted, the “Court must make a written finding as to why less restrictive conditions would not assure safety to the community and assure the defendant’s appearance in court.”

This research brief examines detention petition outcomes for domestic violence cases under the PFA in four counties: Cook, DuPage, Kane, and McHenry Counties. The analyses were produced using public data from agency websites. The information provided here pertains only to four of Illinois' 102 counties that have made their PFA data publicly available.

How Often Were Petitions to Detain Filed?

As noted above, the detention process must start with an initial petition to detain filed by the state. Without a petition to detain, all individuals charged with domestic violence, or any other charge, must be released. Across the four counties with public data, petitions to detain were filed in as few as 16% of domestic violence cases in Kane County and in as many as 53% of cases in McHenry County. In Cook County and Kane County, petitions to detain were not filed in over 80% of domestic violence cases.

How Often Were Petitions to Detain Successful?

In those cases where a petition to detain was filed, courts rarely imposed detention. Across the four counties, when a petition to detain was filed, courts imposed detention in as few as 24% of domestic violence cases in Kane and McHenry Counties and in as many as 40% of cases in Cook County. Thus, across all four counties, courts did not impose detention in over 60% of domestic violence cases with a detention petition filed.

What Proportion of Domestic Violence Cases Result in Detention?

Overall, few domestic violence cases resulted in detention. Across the four counties, as few as 4% of domestic violence cases in Kane County and as many as 13% of cases in McHenry County resulted in detention.

This research is supported by Award No. 15PNIJ-21-GG-02807-RESS awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.