Model Domestic Violence Policy for Counties

 

Definitions, Problem Statement, Purpose and Policy Statement

Return to Contents

DEFINITIONS

For purposes of this policy, the following terms will be defined as follows.

• Domestic Violence: A pattern of coercive tactics which can include physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and emotional abuse, perpetrated by one person against an adult intimate partner, with the goal of establishing and maintaining power and control over the victim.

• Abuser: An adult who perpetrates a pattern of coercive tactics which can include physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and emotional abuse against an adult intimate partner, with the goal of establishing and maintaining power and control over the victim. (1)

• Victim: The adult person against whom an abuser directs his coercive and violent acts.(1) Because women represent the vast majority of victims, this policy will refer to abusers as male and to victims as female. Most of the information in this policy, however, will apply to all victims and abusers regardless of their gender or the gender of their partners, including both gay men and lesbians, and men who are abused by their female partners.

• Adult Intimate Partner Relationships: Includes adult persons who are legally married to one another; were formerly married to one another; have a child in common regardless of whether they were ever married or lived together at any time; are unrelated, but living together or have lived together in the past; are unrelated but who have had intimate or continuous social contact with one another and who have access to one another's household; and who have or have had a dating or sexual relationship, including same sex couples.(2)

• System: A group of people and/or organizations that serve a common purpose, i.e., the health care system is made up of formal institutions, both public and private, including hospitals, clinics, managed care organizations, visiting nurse associations, and public health agencies; and individuals such as physicians, dentists, and obstetricians in private practice, all of whom have a general interest in improving and treating the health of those they serve. It is also used in this policy to refer to an individual's support network, i.e., an informal system of support may include friends, family members, and community acquaintances.

• Provider: Any person in a position to provide assistance to a victim of domestic violence or to intervene with abusers. Includes persons working in the formal systems included in this policy-criminal justice, legal and judicial, health care, substance abuse, child welfare, mental health, and education-as well as employers, and persons working in other public and private agencies and organizations such as women's centers, departments of social services, child care centers, neighborhood groups, job training programs, and homeless housing networks. Provider also refers to members of faith communities.

• Domestic Violence Service Provider: Agency or a staff member of an agency that primarily or exclusively provides comprehensive services to victims of domestic violence, including residential programs licensed by the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (formerly, the Department of Social Services) and primary providers of non-residential services to victims of domestic violence.

• Victim-Witness Advocates: Individuals who provide advocacy and information to the broader group of crime victims, including victims of domestic violence. These persons are often based in, or linked with, the District Attorney's Office or law enforcement agencies, and the victims they work with generally have pending cases before the court.

• Batterers Intervention Program: A program that includes, but is not limited to, the operation of educational classes for abusers as part of a coordinated criminal and civil justice and community response; demonstration of accountability to battered women through ongoing, clear, and cooperative relationships with domestic violence service providers; and the provision of community education and training.

• County and local officials and leaders: Includes, but is not limited to, County Executives, County Legislators, and County Agency Department Heads; and mayors, town supervisors, and council members.
  
  

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Scope of the Problem

Domestic violence occurs in epidemic proportions, impacting an estimated 6.2 million American women every year,(3) and causing more injury to women than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.(4) It is a lethal crime, which claims the lives of four women on average each day,(5) leaving hundreds of children motherless each year. Yet women are not the only victims; at least half of all men who batter their female partners also abuse their children(6) and it is estimated that 1 out of every 20 individuals 60 years and older is the victim of elder abuse.(7)

 

Domestic violence has its roots in a long history of social and legal traditions that have permitted and supported men's abuse of women and children in family relationships. These legal and social sanctions, rooted in sexism and misogyny, have allowed family violence to remain a "private matter," immune from public scrutiny and intervention, for centuries. In fact, the vast majority (91-95%) of victims of partner violence are women who are abused by their male partners.(8)

The pattern of abuse

Although it is most obvious when abusive men commit physical assault, domestic violence is best understood as an abuser's pattern of coercive behavior that serves to establish and maintain power and control over family, household members, or intimate others. An abuser establishes and maintains power over the victim through the use of a variety of coercive tactics that can include physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and emotional abuse, resulting in a fixed imbalance of power between the abuser and his partner.

 

An abuser's tactics of control can progress very slowly, making domestic violence difficult to recognize in its early stages. Although abusers' coercive tactics often include criminal conduct such as threatening or harassing the victim in person or over the phone, stalking, as well as perpetrating physical assaults, early on, their tactics of abuse are often non-criminal and/or non-physical. For example, they may use emotional abuse, attempt to isolate the victim from friends and family, and/or exert control over financial resources. These forms of abuse can be very difficult to recognize as domestic violence, not only by the victim, but by friends, family members, and helping professionals.

 

Although these forms of domestic violence are not necessarily violations of law and therefore may not warrant a criminal justice intervention, they should be taken seriously. The coercive tactics other than physical violence that abusers use to control their intimate partners not only can cause serious emotional and psychological harm to all family members, but are often precursors to physical violence.

 

Over time, abusers typically escalate both the frequency and/or severity of their abuse, including an escalation in the severity of their physical assaults. While physical violence is not always part of an abuser's pattern of coercive behavior, it is a common tactic of control. Once abusers use physical violence, they are likely to intensify their assaults over time, increasing the victim's risk of harm, including serious and life-threatening injury. Further, as abusers intensify their use of physical violence, their potential for killing their partners increases.

 

Abusers' success at establishing control by instilling fear in their partners, however, does not rely upon their use of physical violence. When physical abuse is not part of abusers' tactics of control, the use of threats and intimidation against their partners are common. Further, the absence of physical violence from abusers' tactics of control does not mean that these situations are necessarily less harmful or lethal than those in which physical violence is perpetrated. For example, a victim's partner may hold a loaded gun to her head or repeatedly threaten to harm her, the children, or himself, actions that create a great risk of harm or death from the abuser. As another example, family pets are often mistreated or killed by abusers to frighten their partners, as a threat of potential interpersonal attacks, or as a form of retaliation or punishment.(9) Animal abuse is a common precursor to physical assault.

 

Because the pattern of abusive men's tactics of control most often follows a predictable course, the more skilled individuals become at recognizing the pattern in its early stages, the more opportunity there is for providing assistance early on. Early intervention may prevent illness, injury, and even death by increasing victims' safety and reinforcing abusers' accountability for their coercive and violent behavior.

Diversity of Victims' Experiences

Although abusers' patterns of coercive tactics are remarkably similar across all demographic lines-socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religious affiliation, physical and mental disabilities, immigrant status, education, employment status, urban vs. rural residency, and marital status-these differences can affect how domestic violence is identified and responded to, which, in turn, can make the experience of domestic violence different for women across these groups.

 

Women in rural communities, for example, must often contend with a lack of public transportation, physical distance from neighbors contributing to isolation, and a lack of anonymity common in a small-town community. It is also common in rural communities for family members of both victims and abusers to work within the helping fields or have direct connections to those who work within the helping fields, creating additional barriers for victims and potentially reducing the likelihood of accountability for abusers.

 

Cultural or religious groups may hold values around family, sex roles and community integrity that can create additional pressures on battered women. Membership in a particular cultural or religious group, however, can also be a source of strength for battered women. These diverse communities may provide supports or services that are more appropriate to a battered woman's cultural or religious affiliation than those available through the mainstream service system.

 

For many women with disabilities who are victims of domestic violence, needed services are often inadequate and/or inaccessible. For example, resource materials are rarely available in alternate formats (Braille, large print, audio-tape); buildings where services are delivered may be physically inaccessible to women in wheelchairs; transportation may be unavailable to women with physical disabilities; and access to a TTY or to volume control phones for deaf/hearing-impaired women may be limited.

 

In addition to the lack of discrete services for gay men and lesbians who are abused by their partners, gay and lesbian victims who seek help may face exposure of their sexual orientation to those to whom they are not "out"; institutionalized heterosexism; negative attitudes about homosexuality from "helpers"; and fewer legal options than victims who are legally married.

 

The considerable diversity among victims of domestic violence requires systems to develop individualized responses that consider the particular needs of victims and that conform to "best practice" guidelines.

Costs of domestic violence

The direct impact on adult victims of abusers' perpetration of coercion and violence-in emotional upheaval, injury, illness, and loss of life-is well-documented. Beyond that, perpetrators of domestic violence disrupt and break families apart, endanger children by compromising their physical and emotional well-being, and model abuse as a "norm" that may be repeated through generations.

 

While these costs of domestic violence on victims and other household members may be inestimable, the direct and indirect economic costs are not. Domestic violence imposes significant costs on the criminal justice system and courts, the health care system, mental health system, and child welfare system. Direct costs also include the resources expended through the necessary provision of public and private emergency shelter and support services. The indirect costs of domestic violence include poor work performance, lost workplace productivity, and an increase in the cost of health benefits.(10) Domestic violence is a problem that has a significant economic impact on communities and society at large.

PURPOSE AND POLICY STATEMENT

Chapter 396 of the Laws of 1994, in amending §575 of the Executive Law, encourages New York's counties to assure "that best practices, policies, protocols, and procedures are used to address the issue of domestic violence, and to secure the safety of the victim," consistent with law and applicable regulations. In addition, §575 advances the additional goal of providing "consistency and coordination by and between county agencies and departments, including criminal justice agencies and the judiciary, and, as appropriate, by municipalities or other jurisdictions within the county and other governmental agencies and departments."

 

The scope of domestic violence compels more than government action alone; it requires the promotion of coordinated, public-private, and multi-disciplinary solutions. With this in mind, and understanding that counties are both administrative entities and geographical communities, each county should express its intention to meet that challenge, and recognize that in its roles as

 

• a legislative entity;
• a direct provider of public safety, criminal justice, health, youth, social, and other services;
• a contractor for materials and services;
• an employer and purchaser of health care and other benefits;
• an advocate to the state on issues of law and policy; and
• a center for community leadership and community coordination;

 

it has the obligation to proactively respond to the problem of domestic violence, to maximize the effective use and/or reallocation of public resources that are not already supporting domestic violence services, and to establish within the county a climate of zero tolerance for domestic violence.

 

Toward that end, therefore, within their individual missions, all county units, agencies and contract agencies should develop written domestic violence policy statements and accompanying written procedures/protocols for identifying, documenting, assessing, and responding to domestic violence. In their role as community leaders, they should also encourage the active participation of the private sector in this process and encourage the integration of the policy/protocol recommendations into private sector responses.

 

Such policies/protocols must be developed in conjunction with local domestic violence service providers, consumers of domestic violence services, and representatives from the relevant systems, and should, at a minimum:

 

• be consistent with the recommendations outlined in this document;
• identify mechanisms for referral and follow up, and develop linkages within and across systems, where appropriate;
• establish plans for staff training and skills development;
• establish plans for supervision and internal accountability measures;
• provide measures for responding to domestic incidents should they occur in or affect the workplace, and establish supervisory responsibilities when employees are identified as victims or perpetrators of domestic abuse; and
• establish mechanisms for evaluation and periodic public reporting.

 

Such policies/procedures should be widely disseminated to associated county offices and public agencies with clearly articulated expectations regarding implementation. To ensure the maximum degree of consistent and coordinated response, such policies/procedures should also be widely disseminated throughout the private sector, including businesses, private and not-for-profit health and human service agencies, and employee unions.

---

(1)This policy primarily addresses adult partner violence, although there may be many similarities in "best practice" responses to both adult and adolescent abusers and victims. The use of violence and coercion by teenagers in dating relationships is common, the pattern of young abusers' coercive tactics is very similar to that of adults, and young abusers can and do perpetrate physical assaults that result in serious and life-threatening injury and death. Teen dating violence is addressed in the Education System section.

(2) Not all systems operate from this inclusive definition of intimate partner relationships. For example, statutory definitions restrict access to Family Court for many victims of adult partner violence. Some statutory definitions, however, set a minimum standard (mandatory arrest, for example), but do not preclude expansion of the definition of intimate partner relationships. Since domestic violence occurs in all of the above-mentioned relationships, systems and providers should operate from the most inclusive definition of intimate partner relationships possible, unless to do so would be in violation of existing statute. Further, since the lack of a unified definition of domestic violence in communities is often an obstacle to coordinated responses, adoption of a unified, inclusive definition is an important step in strengthening a community's response to domestic violence.

(3) Gelles and Straus, survey on domestic violence, National Institute of Mental Health, 1985.

(4) Stark and Flitcraft, "Violence Among Intimates, An Epidemiological Review," in Handbook of Family Violence, ed., V.D. Van Hasselt, et al., 1988.

(5) Violence Between Intimates, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November, 1994.

(6) Bowker, Arbitell & McFerron, "On the Relationship Between Wife Beating and Child Abuse," in Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse, eds., Yllö & Bograd. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1987.

(7) National Center on Elder Abuse, "Understanding the Nature and Extent of Elder Abuse in Domestic Settings." June, 1995.

(8) Violence Between Intimates, ibid.

(9) Ascione, Frank R., Ph.D., Claudia V. Weber, M.S., and David S. Wood. "The Abuse of Animals and Domestic Violence: A National Survey of Shelters for Women Who Are Battered." Society and Animals, 1997, 5(3), in press.

(10) Zorza, Joan. "Women Battering: High Costs and the State of the Law," Clearinghouse Review, Vol 28, No.4, Special Issue 1994.