Domestic Violence in the Military: Implementing Collaborative MOUs

Though separated from surrounding communities in many ways, military installations are not islands. Service members and their families regularly visit such communities, and many live outside the installation in them. Any domestic violence (DV) incident that occurs off installations is under the jurisdiction of local civilian authorities. In fact, civilian authorities may also have jurisdiction (and be first responders) over incidents that occur on installations. Thus, one of the recommendations of the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence (DTFDV) — which conducted a comprehensive review from 2000 to 2003 of how the military could most effectively prevent and respond to DV by and against its service members — was that the Department of Defense (DoD) “require installation/regional commanders to seek MOUs [memorandums of understanding] with local communities to address responses to domestic violence.”

While issuing such uniform policy may be relatively simple for the DoD, meeting this goal is likely to be a considerable challenge for both installations and communities. RAND examined some of the key challenges that must be addressed in establishing MOUs and recommend some ways to address them.

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http://rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB6016/index1.html