Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

In our previous blog, we discussed how police officers in Tennessee are commanded by law to assess a domestic violence situation by determining who the primary aggressor is and responding to that situation accordingly. It is worth noting that the decision as to who is the primary aggressor is not entirely up to the discretion of the police officer. In fact, the Tennessee Code mandates what factors the officer can consider in determining who the primary aggressor is. T.C.A. §36-3-619(c) provides that an officer must consider:

(1) The history of domestic abuse between the parties;

(2) The relative severity of the injuries inflicted on each person;

(3) Evidence from the persons involved in the domestic abuse;

(4) The likelihood of future injury to each person;

(5) Whether one (1) of the persons acted in self-defense; and

(6) Evidence from witnesses of the domestic abuse.

The history of domestic abuse is obviously relevant in determining who the aggressor is because it is likely that a person is the primary aggressor if he or she has been the primary aggressor in domestic abuse situations involving those parties in the past. The severity of the injuries is likewise relevant because the party who is least injured is often, but not always, the party responsible for initiating the violence. This factor also speaks somewhat to factor (5) because the more a party injures another party, the less likely that they were acting in self-defense in most cases. The officer must also consider evidence from the parties themselves and from witnesses, as such parties would be in the best position to tell the officers what actually happened.

This determination is often instrumental in domestic violence cases as to which person is charged for criminal conduct in connection with the incident. Persons who feel like they were wrongfully charged or were charged with a more serious offense than they deserved should contact an experienced Tennessee criminal defense attorney for assistance in disputing the charges and obtaining a favorable result to their case.