It's just puppy love.  Maybe so, but it's puppy love where people get hurt.

Some people dismiss teen domestic violence as not being the real thing.  But denial and excuses aren't going to solve the problem, which finds its way into almost one in three high school relationships in this country.  In light of its prevalence, some communities are stepping up and trying to put a stop to domestic violence involving youth so the offenders don't continue to abuse their partners into adulthood.

In California, Santa Clara County's solution to this kind of abuse was the creation of a specialized court to deal with juvenile domestic and family violence.

"I don't think that schools nor the community [have] taken any domestic violence between teens seriously in the past," said Jean Pennypacker, Director of the Santa Clara County Superior Court's Family Resources Division.  "[With the specialized court], the community is saying we take any battering of a minor by a minor seriously."

A 20-year veteran of the court system, Pennypacker has provided administrative support to the Juvenile Domestic and Family Violence Court since it was developed in 1999.  Largely, Judge Eugene Hyman was the driving force behind the court's creation.

"I have been very active in domestic violence prevention with respect to policies and procedures, with respect to victims' assistance [and] with respect to offender assistance in terms of good intervention programs," said Hyman, who served as a judge of the Juvenile Domestic Violence Court until the end of last year.  Prior to that, he presided over cases involving adult domestic violence. 

"It just made sense to me that there had to be juvenile domestic violence and also violence involving children assaulting their parents or assaulting their siblings," he said.  "Intuitively, I just felt that there had to be a lot of situations out there where this is occurring and nothing was being done."

Prior to the court's institution, teen domestic violence cases were typically being diverted from the courts, according to Hyman.  As a result, victims were not receiving proper counseling and abusers were neither being held accountable for their actions nor getting the treatment they needed, he said. 

"Unless someone was seriously hurt, these cases were never filed on," Hyman said.

That has changed over the past five years though, since the Juvenile Domestic and Family Violence Court has been hearing or reviewing between 20 and 25 cases each week.  The process of revamping the system, including developing law enforcement protocols for teen domestic violence, took cooperation from many different groups, however.

Some were easier to recruit than others.

Creating a Collaboration

"The good news is that probation already had started a full-time domestic violence probation officer [working with juveniles] and a part-time probation officer working on family violence," Hyman said.  "At least I had probation on board."

While probation had already begun to devote time and staff specifically to juvenile domestic and family violence, Hyman had to convince some of the other involved agencies that a specialized court was a good idea, particularly the public defenders, who were worried about the court favoring punishment.

"I had to assure them that I was interested in really helping those that could be helped," Hyman said.  "[I told them that] this just wasn't a [district attorney] machine to somehow lock people up."

Law enforcement officials, too, had to buy into the idea of the new court, especially since they were dealing with these kids on the front end.  No protocols existed for teen domestic violence at the time and, typically, law enforcement officers were not arresting kids; they were only citing teens--if they took any action against them at all, he said.

According to Hyman, when teens were cited, they were required to return to court eight to 12 weeks later, a period of time during which they were more likely to reoffend than if they had been required to report immediately.  With an arrest they must appear in court within 48 hours, which gets people into the system faster, speeds up their rehabilitation and protects victims, he said.   

Still, law enforcement officers were wary that their efforts would be in vain and juveniles would be released no sooner than they were arrested.

"They had to be assured that this wasn't going to be a waste of their time," Hyman said.

Ultimately, he succeeded and, once the DA, public defenders and law enforcement agencies sided with the court in its mission, the next step was to join forces with area service providers, which could help both victims and abusers.

Adult perpetrators of domestic violence in the county were already being sent to a 52-week batterer intervention program, but according to Hyman, that type of program was too long for young offenders.  Instead, the county developed a 26-week program, which is geared specifically towards juveniles and covers issues such as power and control.

Aside from getting batterers into an intervention program, the court leads juveniles to other resources, such as substance abuse and parenting programs.  Furthermore, the court has an agreement with Legal Advocates for Children & Youth (LACY), a county organization that provides free legal and related social services to children and youth.

LACY's involvement is important because almost 50 percent of juvenile abusers have children with the victims, according to Hyman.

"They came on board and any victim who had a child with their perpetrator was automatically referred to [LACY] for representation," said Hyman, noting that the organization handles issues such as establishing paternity and custody disputes.

In addition to LACY, the court also teamed up with shelters and intervention programs for victims.  But the court also has maintained an equal dedication to getting batterers the additional treatment they need to change their behavior.

"We also look into the [batterers'] life experiences and if they've ever been a victim of violence and, assuming the statute hasn't run [out], then we get them victim witness money so that they can get counseling as well," Hyman said.

While the court links abusers and victims with the treatment and social services they need, it also keeps a close eye on juvenile offenders by requiring them to appear before a judge for periodic case reviews.

"One of the ways we deal with these minors is we have them keep coming back because we review their program and make sure that they are complying with the conditions of the program and not reoffending," said Judge Richard Loftus, who currently presides over the Juvenile Domestic and Family Violence Court.  "It's a very labor intensive calendar.  You see them over and over and over again and the purpose is to encourage them."

Keeping At It

The court hopes that constant encouragement coupled with treatment will help to stop juvenile domestic violence in Santa Clara County.  But, more needs to be done to fight this battle, according to Hyman.

"These kids, they're hurting and they're angry," Hyman said.  "If we don't get them good mentoring and other programs, they're not going to be rehabilitated."

According to Hyman, there are two areas where ties can be strengthened to help the court achieve this goal.

"Our shortcomings are the educational community and the faith community," Hyman said.  "[Schools and the faith community] need to be more involved in terms of making this issue understandable to the average person [and] teaching kids that it's wrong to control [and] hit."

In addition, Hyman said, there needs to be more training for people who handle domestic violence cases in court.  Currently, three hours of training each year are available to attorneys, clerk staff, probation officers and the clerical staff in the county's Public Defender's Office.  But more can always be done to educate people about juvenile domestic violence, Hyman said.

"This is a process that is never finished," Hyman said.  "The second that you think there is nothing else to do, you're wrong."

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To learn more about the Santa Clara County Juvenile Domestic and Family Violence Court, contact Jean Pennypacker at (408) 882-2718