From February through April 2013, DC Domestic Violence Court Watch volunteers sat in on 303 Civil Protection Order (CPO) cases.

The Honorable Judge Edelman heard 152 CPO cases. The Honorable Judge Anderson heard 119 CPO cases. The Honorable Judge Retchin heard approximately 10 CPO cases. The remaining 22 CPO cases heard were recorded as “other”… (more after the jump).

Find out all recent data at the Court Watch Project Blog!

Each month, SAFE’s contingent of over 40 volunteers dedicate their time to helping survivors of domestic violence. We are so grateful to all of our volunteers and this month we are highlighting Kimberly Martin. Thanks so much for all your hard work, Kim!

Vollie Since: September 2011

SAFE’s Executive Director, Natalia Otero, and Director of the Domestic Violence Unit at the DC Superior Court, Honorable Judge Jose Lopez are interviewed by Mark Segraves on DC50′s NewsPlus about domestic violence and legal remedies in DC.

SAFE supporter and author Leslie Morgan Steiner discusses her experience surviving in an abusive relationship in a recent TEDTalk, ”I had no idea I was falling into crazy love, but I was walking head first into a carefully laid physical, financial and psychological trap.”

Leslie Morgan Steiner lives in Washington, DC and is the author of Crazy Love. Congratulations Leslie and thank you for sharing your story!

Survivor Story: Jesenia

Jesenia is a mother of two and originally from El Salvador, now living in Washington, DC. Married to an abusive man, Jesenia had endured over ten years of domestic abuse. One night, after her husband had been arrested for severely assaulting her, Jesenia made the decision to call SAFE’s 24 ACCION Line where she spoke to a bilingual advocate about the criminal justice process, her right to report domestic violence to police, and how to get protection from the Court. Jesenia’s main concern was obtaining custody of her children; her husband repeatedly threatened her that he would take them away if she left him.

SAFE has over 40 volunteer advocates who give their time each month to help survivors in crisis .  In this Volunteer HIghlight we are hearing from Mautez Lovett!

Time volunteering at SAFE: Vollie since September 2012

The National Network to End Domestic Violence‘s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Fact Sheet states that approximately 37% of women seeking injury-related treatment in hospital emergency rooms were there because of injuries inflicted by a current or former spouse/partner. Approximately 40-50% of female victims are physically injured when assaulted by their intimate partner, according to The DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence. This percentage accounts for more than 200,000 visits to the hospital emergency room each year.

Emergency room staff have a unique opportunity to connect domestic violence survivors to immediate crisis services. A study from the University of Pennsylvania found that nearly 80 percent of women who reported domestic assaults to the police visited an emergency room at least once during the four years after their assault, and “most of those sought ED care frequently – an average of seven times each.”

By giving discussing with survivors the cause of their injuries and helping them learn more about the nature of domestic abuse, doctors and nurses are able to provide an opportunity for survivors to discuss intimate partner violence, possibly for the first time. According to Futures Without Violence, of the 44% of domestic violence survivors who spoke with someone about their abuse, 37% spoke specifically with their health care provider. They also noted that “in four different studies of survivors of abuse, 70 percent to 81 percent of the patients studied reported that they would like their healthcare providers to ask them privately about intimate partner violence.”

Despite this, only 28 percent of the patients in the aforementioned University of Pennsylvania study were ever identified as victims of abuse. The potential consequences of leaving the issue un-adressed are dire: according to The American College of Emergency Physicians, “nearly half (44%) of women murdered by their intimate partner had visited an emergency department within two years of the homicide.”

Locally, doctors and nurses from MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s Emergency Room have worked with DC SAFE advocates to develop a screening tool that nurses can use to start a productive conversation with potential victims of family and intimate partner violence.

Learn more about SAFE’s work with Emergency Departments in DC here.

 Programa de Asignación de Recursos

El programa de asignación de recursos es un programa que tiene como objetivo compilar un reporte preciso de servicios y proveedores de recursos para víctimas y sobrevivientes de la violencia doméstica en DC, Maryland, y Virginia. El objetivo es crear una cuenta precisa del número de organizaciones y agencias en toda la región y una lista de servicios ofrecida por cada una. Esta cuenta posibilita a nuestras asesoras a conectar nuestras clientes inmigrantes y latinas a más servicios apropiados lingüística- y culturalmente para ellas.   Al terminar el proyecto esperamos poder usar la lista de recursos para ayudar a sobrevivientes de violencia doméstica fuera de nuestra región, refiriéndose a organizaciones o agencias cerca de ellos que puedan proveer los servicios que ellos necesitan. Tambien, compartiremos la informacion con la Agencia de Asuntos Latinos (OLA en siglas de inglés) de DC para para ayudar a otras organizaciones que sirven a la comunidad latina.

Mapping Resources for Latin Communities

The Latin Resource Mapping Project aims to compile an accurate account of Spanish speaking or culturally competent service providers for survivors of domestic violence in DC, Maryland and Virginia. Our goal is to get an accurate count of organizations and agencies throughout the region and a reliable list of resources offered by each so that SAFE can better help immigrant and Latin@ survivors through our ACCION emergency line and our bilingual advocates in the two Domestic Violence Intake Centers. We plan to share the final project with the DC Office on Latino Affairs in order to enable other service providers to the Latin Community in DC to get information on linguistically and culturally competent services.

Fill out our short survey here!

By Baylis Beard Molina, Director of Advocacy

Conscious of the importance of gender equality, the author has incorporated neutral terms. Specifically, we have used of the “@” sign to represent the diversity of our community and to include persons who do not conform to traditional gender identities.

The impact of domestic violence on victims and their loved ones is dramatic: the National Coalition for Domestic Violence reports that for victims of domestic violence, “almost one-third of all female homicide victims that are reported in police records were killed by an intimate partner,” and for the children of these victims, “witnessing violence between one’s parents or caretakers is the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.”  Beyond the emotional, physical, and mental impact that domestic violence has on the one in four women who will experience such violence in their lifetime, domestic violence is a significant public health issue with far-reaching effects that negatively impact our economy on both state and federal levels.

In “Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States,” the National Center for Injury and Prevention Control reported that:

“The costs of intimate partner rape, physical assault, and stalking exceed $5.8 billion each year, nearly $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services. The total costs of IPV [intimate partner violence] also include nearly $0.9 billion in lost productivity from paid work and household chores for victims of nonfatal IPV and $0.9 billion in lifetime earnings lost by victims of IPV homicide.”

Intervention programs aimed at preventing domestic violence, however, have been shown to save money both nationally and for individual states. The Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Domestic Violence against Women and Girls posted a Case Study on civil orders of protection, or OFP, in Kentucky, that was conducted in 2009 by the United States Department of Justice. The study concluded that “[the] cost to society of a protective order is very small (about $354) when compared to the many costs that a victim of domestic abuse incurs,” which averaged “$17,500 for the 6 months of violence before an OFP was issued [and] $13,000 for the 6 month period after an OFP was issued.”  Based on their findings, “the study reported that protective orders saved the state of Kentucky $85 million in one year.”

On a federal level, The Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA, has also aided domestic violence survivors as well as the United States economy since its first authorization in 1994. A study entitled “A Cost-Benefit Analysis of The Violence Against Women Act,” published in the April 2002 issue of the Violence Against Women Journal, found that “while [VAWA] cost $15.50 per U.S. woman…it saved $159 per U.S. woman in averted costs of criminal victimization” and “using minimum possible costs for the various crimes that did not occur, the act resulted in $47 saved per woman and $4.8 billion saved overall.” Unfortunately, the current version of VAWA expired under the 112th Congress, but you can show your support for an inclusive VAWA and help push the 113th Congress to action. For more information on VAWA, check out the White House’s VAWA Fact Sheet, and visit Break the Cycle‘s website to learn more about what you can do to help.

By Katie Bieze, Outreach Intern

In 2012, as a result of these aggressive efforts, the domestic violence homicide rate in the District was cut by 65% for the first time in 10 years.