A surprising victim in domestic violence cases

A friend of mine is an initial appearance court judge in the county in which we live. One of the more surprising stories I've heard from him about the cases he covers is how often the cell phone appears in the police reports.

I don't know how many cell phones are thrown in the pool, smashed on the ground, run over, or otherwise vandalized, but according to him, you can almost always bet that a cell phone will fall victim to its own story of violence in a domestic abuse case.

Men get angry at their girlfriends who they think are calling other men. So the cell phone gets destroyed. Women think their men are calling other women, so they throw it at him. Parents get upset at their children for violating a curfew, and the cell phone gets tossed into the pool. It happens every day somewhere in Maricopa County. I suspect it happens elsewhere as well.

I guess that means the cell phone companies are an unlikely financial beneficiary because of domestic violence, as these people will wind up replacing their cell phones.

I tried to locate stories online documenting this, as I find it interesting, but Google didn't come up with any. Must not be that important in the news world, maybe only to the cell phone owner/user who no longer has access to his or her text messages...until the new phone comes along.

Which is easier to replace, I wonder, the cell phone or the intimate partner?

For some, I guess it could be a tough call.

All my best,
Jackie