Between the years of 2000 and 2006 domestic homicide took 10,600 lives.
Although we have come a long way in how we view domestic violence, we still have a long road ahead. As a society, we still place the burden of changing the pattern of behavior on the victim – not the perpetrator. The victim must pack up and leave, often pulling children out of school, quitting her job, agreeing to give up all contact with her family and friends and go to a shelter that does not accept pets or boys over the age of 12.
Why should the victim be forced to change her life when it is the perpetrator inciting terror? It used to be people thought this was the only way to keep the victims safe, but new work being done in Massachusetts is changing the way society manages this devastating problem.
Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell, the country’s leading expert on domestic homicide, of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, created a “dangerousness level” evaluation using factors that help predict which cases are more likely to end up in homicide. Risk factors include: whether the offender has forced sex on the victim, choked the victim, is jobless, has a history of drug abuse, etc. Dr. Campbell’s research has been the impetus for two new developments that are helping to protect victims of domestic violence.
Dr. Campbell found that the risk of homicide increases greatly when big changes happen – especially when the victim tries to leave the abuser, but decreases greatly after about a year. In response to this information, some courts around the country are now using this evaluation at arraignment hearings after an offender is arrested to determine whether the offender should be released until the trial date. If an offender is determined to pose a substantial threat to the victim then he or she can be held till trial, even if the abuser has no criminal history. This gives the victim much needed time to save money, find counseling, move, or get a new job.
In addition, The Jeannie Geiger Crisis Center in Massachusetts has teamed up with local attorneys, judges, law enforcement and victims’ advocates to create a domestic violence high risk network team to keep an eye out for the most dangerous situations (relationships that score very high on the dangerousness evaluation) and come up with a plan for the period when things may be the most volatile. Since implementing this system, none of the cases in the high risk network team have ended in homicide.
In Washington state we’ve passed several bills over the last few years to toughen and strengthen our domestic violence laws: HB 1180, HB 1188, HB 2363, HB 1001, HB 1108, HB 1383, and HB 1840. These bills allowed children of DV victims to access support services, made it more difficult for batterers to find spouses, toughened penalties for stalking and harassment, and tried to take firearms away from offenders. The prime sponsor of these bills, Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, convenes a domestic violence working group each year to discuss major issues. Perhaps dangerousness hearings will be on the next meeting’s agenda!
To learn more about this issue please read “A Raised Hand“, in this month’s issue of the New Yorker, by Rachel Louise Snyder.