Police in Tarrant County, Texas, have started hand-delivering letters to individuals convicted of any form of abuse against an intimate partner- even relatively minor, non-violent crimes. The letters inform the perpetrator that they have been added to a registry of domestic violence perpetrators and that any future crimes will be treated very seriously. The goal is halt the behavior before it escalates, and it appears to be working. Since the program’s inception, the rate of re-occurrence of intimate partner violence has been cut in half.
