Deborah DeBare – RI Future

During the past ten years, from 2006 to 2015, 54 people lost their lives to domestic violence homicides in Rhode Island over the course of 48 incidents, says a new report from the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV). Domestic Violence Homicides in Rhode Island, 2006-2015 is a first-of-its-kind report. The report contains key findings, homicide incident descriptions, and recommendations for preventing future domestic violence homicides in Rhode Island.

By analyzing the collective data, the report delivers some key findings:

Domestic violence homicide is a violence against women issue: Of the 45 victims killed in intimate partner homicide incidents, 34 (76 percent) were women.
Guns and domestic violence continue to be a deadly combination: Firearms made already violent situations more deadly. In every incident where a bystander was killed, a gun was used.
Many of the intimate partner homicide incidents shared common elements that are known to indicate a heightened risk of homicide: In 14 of the 41 cases, there were indications that the perpetrator had been stalking the victim, 20 of the 41 perpetrators had been arrested for domestic violence in the past, and in 22 of the 41 cases there was evidence that the victim had already left or was planning to leave when the homicide occurred.

The report offers five recommendations:

Rhode Island must continue to invest in coordinated community response to domestic violence and foster collaboration between law enforcement, courts and victim advocates.
Rhode island must implement dangerousness assessment and screen all domestic violence criminal cases for lethality risk factors.
Rhode Island must pass legislation to prohibit convicted domestic violence perpetrators and perpetrators subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns.
Rhode Island must pass legislation to strengthen the state’s current laws against stalking and consistently enforce protective orders.
Rhode Island must take steps to stop domestic violence before it happens in the first place and establish a fund that will support evidence-substantiated public health approaches to the primary prevention of domestic violence.

At the press conference to announce the report there were two posters bearing the names of all those murdered in Rhode Island in domestic violence incidents. Two women told heartbreaking stories about losing a family member to domestic violence. In the first, Jami Ouellette talks about her sister Stacy’s death at the hands of her abusive husband. The story is graphic and chilling.

Next, Ann Burke tells of her daughter’s death from intimate partner homicide. A health teacher, Burke has been instrumental in getting the state to teach teens about intimate partner violence, but she has been doing so without any funding since the program began. She co-founded the Lindsay Ann Burke Memorial Fund in he daughter’s memory.

Deborah DeBare, executive director of the RICADV walks us through the report.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin also spoke. He has been a strong advocate for the prevention of domestic violence.

Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed were met by unusual lobbyists in the hallways of the State House before going into session on Tuesday. Five children, Shyenne, 14, Seneca, 11, Shawnee, 9 Saponi, 8 and Dominique, 10, all victims of or witnesses to domestic violence, asked the General Assembly leaders to pass legislation that would create the Domestic Violence Prevention Fund, helping to “put an end to domestic violence before it starts.”

Paiva-Weed took extra time to greet the children, and told of her time as an advocate for domestic violence victims, expressing that she understood the traumas associated. She thanked the children for reminding her about this important concern. Mattiello spoke to the children in a crowded hallway, and I was not privy to the specifics of the conversation.

According to the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which organized the event, 500 children have been present at domestic violence arrests since bills H5651 and S650 were heard by committees in March. 500 children that might have been helped had this legislation passed.

“Childhood trauma,” reads a RICADV press release, “is not something a person grows out of- such adverse experiences strongly relate to a person’s development and to the prevalence of health and social problems throughout one’s lifespan, including chronic diseases, substance abuse, dropping out of school, employment challenges and even early death.”

1 in 3 Rhode Islanders will experience domestic violence within their lifetimes. Between 8 and 10 thousand children receive domestic violence services in Rhode Island each year. “In 2013, children were present for 40 percent of domestic violence arrests, and children accounted for 50 percent of the clients who stayed in domestic violence shelters that year.”

The status of children struck by hot cooking oil during a domestic violence incident in Providence last week is unknown, but it is the kind of assault that a smart domestic violence prevention program may have prevented.

About 100 domestic violence advocates and volunteers, many first time visitors to the State House, cornered legislators and pinned small orange paper dolls to their lapels if the legislator expressed support for the bill. “It’s a little like ‘pin the tail on the donkey’” said Deborah DeBare, Executive Director of RICADV. RICADV partnered with SOAR (Sisters Overcoming Abusive Relationships) for this action.

More seriously, DeBare added, “We want our legislators to know that we care about our children, that we know they they care about our children, and that we want the Domestic Violence Prevention Fund established. Simple as that.”

Please consider calling your state rep and senator, and telling them that you want H5651 and S650 passed before more children fall victim to domestic violence.

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