Restraining Orders in California

Author: Sorenson, Susan B. / Haikang, Shen
Publication: Violence Against Women
Link to Published Abstract
Topics: Domestic Violence Ethnicity Gender Law Enforcement State
Keywords: AFRICAN American women California RESTRAINING orders Victims WOMEN -- Crimes against
Bibliographic information +

In 2003, there were 227,941 active restraining orders against adults in California; most were for domestic violence. Although state law prohibits the purchase or possession of a firearm by persons against whom a restraining order is issued, 9.2% of the orders documented no firearm restrictions. Among those orders that specified firearm restrictions, 38.4% were prohibited only from purchasing a firearm, 4.1% were ordered to relinquish their firearms, and 48.3% were both prohibited and ordered to relinquish their firearms. When the restrained and protected persons were of the same sex, they were more likely to have no firearms prohibitions than if they were of the opposite sex (14.1% for male-male and 12.5% for female-female vs. 8.7% for female-male and 7.6% for male-female). Restrained persons who were Black were more likely than restrained persons of other ethnic groups to have no firearm prohibitions listed.