Bounty Hunters in America

A bounty hunter detains escapees for a financial reward. According to a January 2008 New York Times article, bounty hunting is legal in two countries of the world – the United States of America and the Republic of the Philippines. Apparently, posting bail for individuals charged with crimes in exchange for a fee is almost unknown in the entire world.  According to the article, in England, Canada and several countries, agreeing to pay a defendant’s bail in exchange for a fee is a crime similar to interfering with a witness or jury tampering — akin to obstruction of justice. This liberty for sale is unique to the American justice system.  While bail bonds people are commercial for profit business people - Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon and Wisconsin have put an end to commercial bail bonds, depending instead on systems that necessitate deposits of funds to courts as an alternative to payments to private bail businesses, or just trusting defendants to return for trial.

Commercial bail bond companies get approximately 10% nonrefundable fee for posting bond to the court.  In addition, the bail company occasionally requires collateral in addition to the fee. Collateral is most often a house, but could be oriental rugs, a airplane, jewelry or a winning lottery ticket.  They then harass the accused until the person shows up for the court date.  If the person doesn’t show for the court date, the bail company must pay the full amount of the bond to the court. The bail company must find the person so they don’t forfeit the bond. So enters the bounty hunter.

 In several states, bounty hunters sometimes called bond enforcement agents, may enter the homes of defendants without a warrant (breaking and entering), temporarily lock them up and move them across state lines without entering into the extradition process (kidnapping).

There are a lot of men in the job of bounty hunting. Women were far more interesting. There are noteworthy females doing the job of bounty hunter. There’s not a lot of information on female bounty hunters. It probably due to the security needs of the job. The women bounty hunters are unique in their own way. Some are well known from their reality shows or docudrama on their lives:

• Domino Harvey (August 7, 1969 – June 27, 2005) was the daughter of British actor Laurence Harvey. Her notoriety was increased after her death with a release of the movie Domino about her life. She was born in London, England and died in Los Angeles, CA of drug overdose.
• Dog the Bounty Hunter reality shows has two female hunters:
• o   Beth Smith Chapman is the fifth wife of The Dog (Duane Chapman). They have two children together, Bonnie Joanne Chapman and Garry Chapman.
• o   Lyssa Rae Chapman-Galanti known as "Baby Lyssa" (June 10, 1987) works with her father, The Dog and stepmother Beth in the family business. Lyssa been a licensed bounty hunter since she was age 19. Baby Lyssa is a regular on seasons of Dog the Bounty Hunter

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• Sandra Scott aka Tiffany Million aka(born Sandra Lee Schwab on April 6, 1966) aka Tyffany Million, was a professional wrestler and American pornographic actress. She had her own reality show Wife Mom Bounty Hunter on the WE channel. Most of her website links expired.
• Mackenzie Green is a 60+ bail-bond agent in San Francisco. She’s been called one of the best bounty hunters in the country.
• Ex-Cops Lisa and Teresa Golt are twins and partners in Lipstick Bail Bond in Los Angeles. They’ve been featured on Good Morning America. They even use “pink” handcuffs.

These lady bounty hunters are the most notable.  There are probably many more since this a profitable business.  If you know of more, please share.