o issues were investigated in this study. The first issue investigated in this study concerns the ability of adults claiming to have been abused in St. Louis County, Missouri to obtain ex parte orders of protection from their purported abusers. Operationally, this issue is defined within the following parameters:
1. The independent variable is defined as the number of adult abuse protection order requests disposed of by an appropriate court in St. Louis County, Missouri in a calendar year. Petitions for protection orders disposed of in a given year may include both petitions for protection orders filed in that year and petitions carried forward from prior years. When a subpoena cannot be served on a respondent in a protection order case because the location of the respondent is not known, the petition for protection may be carried forward (National Institute of Justice, 1990).
2. The dependent variable is defined as the number of ex parte protection orders granted in response to adult abuse protection order requests filed with an appropriate court in St. Louis County, Missouri in a calendar year. The ex parte order of protection is a temporary order that is issued before the petitioner leaves the court. The ex parte protection order is issued in those cases where a judge is persuaded that a petitioner is in immediate danger of harm. In Missouri, an ex parte protection order is effective for a period of 15 days. The ex parte protection order states that the respondent is not to abuse or threaten the petitioner and that the respondent is to stay away from the residence of the petitioner. When children are involved, an ex parte protection order can grant temporary custody of the children to the petitioner (Vadasz, 1996).
The second issue investigated in this study concerns the ability of adults claiming to have been abused in St. Louis County, Missouri to obtain full orders of protection from their purported abusers. O...