Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

Re: domestic abuse

How do you know that he physically abuses her? I mean, could you be a witness in your own right, from personal knowledge? Or would you only be able to repeat what she has told you?

Unless you can serve as a witness yourself of a crime, there might not be much you can do legally, if she will not.

If you personally know of a crime (any crime, in any situation), you can certainly report a crime that YOU know about.

While verbal abuse is probably not something that the law will do anything about, physical abuse would be.

So if you know about a crime of physical abuse, you could report it.

However, if the victim (in any crime) is not willing to testify, there is very little the prosecutor can do. They will not pursue something if they don't have cooperation from the witness.

Unfortunately, 90% of what needs to be done is outside the power of the law.... because she is 21, and is not pressing charges herself. If she is not willing to testify against him and/or move out, her status as an adult makes it very difficult for the law to over-ride her own decisions.

Perhaps -- maybe, depending on the relationships you have and the way he acts -- you could let him know that if YOU ever become a witness of any physical abuse, including bruises or wounds, YOU will be a witness against him. That could make him more angry. But it might make him restrain himself, knowing that he cannot intimidate you into staying silent. You would have to judge based on your knowledge of his personality.

For example: If your daughter is the one who told you, then he may blame her for ratting him out to you or even claim she lied about him to you. So he may take it out on her more.

NOTE: Although you cannot intrude on any privacy, and it could really backfire legally if you are intrusive, sounds audible from the street (public property) would be fair game, as public information. I suppose you could talk to the neighbors, but if YOU plant the idea that he is abusing her in their minds, you could be stirring up trouble. ONLY if you can be EXCEEDINGLY DIPLOMATIC you might try to see if you can get them talking, such as show up when no one is home and then while "waiting" just chat up the neighbors, and say you hope your daughter's boyfriend is not too noisy.