Coalition releases study on domestic violence fatalities (Spokane, Washington)

A basic definition of stupidity: continually trying to address the same problem with the same tactics that have failed in the past.

And that's what you see in terms of the official public response to domestic violence fatalities. Lots of unending useless job-churning crap about educating victims, raising awareness and such.

But raising the victim's "awareness" isn't going to help much when somebody is intent on killing you, is it? "Economic independence" doesn't stop a bullet, does it?

Here's what you need to take away from the report below:

"Despite 157 domestic violence incidents reported to police prior to the murders, only 5 abusers wound up in jail for more than a month."

If the authorities jailed these @$$holes and took their threats seriously--e.g. with the same seriousness as when judges or governmental officials are threatened--these same @$$holes wouldn't be in a position to kill women and children, would they?

Funny that. If, say, a federal judge's life is threatened, his or her safety and security is treated as paramount. But when a mother and children are threatened, they're piously informed that they need more education?

See original report here:

http://www.wscadv.org/docs/FR-2010-Report.pdf

http://www.kxly.com/news/26382748/detail.html

Coalition Releases Study On Domestic Violence Fatalities
Sally Showman KXLY4 Reporter
Posted: 6:25 pm PST January 5, 2011

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence has released a study reviewing the number of fatalities – more than 700 people killed – in the last 13 years.

The YWCA is a resource for resource for victims of domestic violence and people there and across the state are analyzing this new study, which found there have been 755 domestic violence fatalities in Washington State since 1997.

47 of those people killed in domestic violence incidents were from Spokane County.


The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence has released a study reviewing the number of fatalities – more than 700 people killed – in the last 13 years. KXLY4's Sally Showman reports.

Each incident helps to illustrate the bigger picture of domestic violence across the state.

According to this study's findings 50-percent of the domestic violence victims were between the age of 21 and 40, 55-percent of the victims were gunned down and 25-percent of all of the murders were witnessed by children.

“In almost half the cases of fatalities, we saw that women who were leaving the relationship, recently left had filed for divorce or were trying to leave were the ones who were getting murdered by their partner,” Grant Stancliff with the YWCA said.

Stancliff sees victims of domestic violence on a daily basis and even he was taken aback by the study’s findings.

The study highlights failures at every point in the legal process, from the 9-1-1 call to the sentencing of the abuser. Despite 157 domestic violence incidents reported to police prior to the murders, only 5 abusers wound up in jail for more than a month.

“If these early interventions aren’t happening, if we’re not getting them at the first 9-1-1 call or first arrest, these are really the results we're going to see,” Stancliff said.

The study sets 11 goals to improve the response to domestic violence, from increasing knowledge about teen dating violence to providing victims options for economic independence. However noble the proposed solutions are, how realistic they are is another question.