Paper to be Presented at Midwestern Criminal Justice Association Annual Meeting​

Defining Serial Domestic Violence Offenders in the United States

Beth Donahue

Springfield Domestic Violence Coalition

Allison Fernandez

Incarnate Word University

Author Note

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Beth Donahue,

Executive Director, Springfield Domestic Violence Coalition, www.springfielddvc.com

beth@springfielddvc.com

Abstract: 

The United States currently lacks a consistent, legally standardized definition for a "serial domestic violence offender" (SDVO), resulting in informal and inconsistent application of the term in practice and public discourse. While there are existing legal classifications, such as "repeat" or "habitual" offender that often rely on prior conviction counts within specified timeframes, this fails to capture the behavioral patterns of coercive control across multiple victims that characterize serial offending. This definitional gap significantly hinders consistent identification, research, risk assessment, and effective intervention strategies for a particularly dangerous subset of perpetrators. These gaps have also gained attention in the United Kingdom but has yet to become a prevalent discussion in the United States (Bland, M. P., Ariel, B., Bland, M. P., & Ariel, B., 2020; Godfrey, B. S., & Richardson, J. C., 2024). This study aims to bring this discussion to the forefront of U.S. public discourse by exploring how the term SDVO is understood and applied in practice. A systematic qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted on U.S. news archives (January 1995 - April 2025) using keywords "serial domestic violence offender," "serial domestic violence abuser," and "serial domestic violence perpetrator". This yielded 24 articles featuring unique individuals explicitly categorized with these terms. A thematic analysis was performed on these case narratives to identify key themes related to offender characteristics and systemic responses. Findings reveal that the term "serial" is often used in news media to describe offenders exhibiting patterns of coercive control spanning multiple victims and relationships, frequently accompanied by escalating physical violence and extensive non-domestic criminality. These individuals often had repeated, yet ineffective, interactions with the criminal justice system, characterized by accountability gaps such as dismissed charges, lenient plea bargains, inadequate sentencing, underutilization of habitual offender laws, and protection order violations. This research highlights a critical discrepancy between the informal, pattern-based understanding of serial domestic violence evident in public discourse and formal, conviction-based legal definitions. The study proposes a working definition for a "serial domestic violence offender" and discusses implications for forensic practice, emphasizing the importance of pattern-based risk assessment that considers multiple victims, strangulation history, general criminality, and court order violations. Addressing this definitional gap is crucial for improving victim safety, offender accountability, and the overall effectiveness of legal and policy responses to patterned domestic abuse.