COLUMBUS, Ohio -- New data is highlighting the need to strengthen programs that help prevent and respond to domestic violence. An annual report from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network reveals 109 Ohioans died as the result of domestic violence in the year ending June 30 2020 - a 35% increase from the year before.

During the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic-violence fatalities were 14% higher than during the same period in 2019. Jo Simonsen, family systems advocacy director with ODVN, said this comes as a primary source of funding for domestic-violence programs, the federal Crime Victims Fund, was cut by one-third statewide.

"While the need is still there and we're actually seeing sort of increases in severity in some of the cases we've heard about most recently, the dollars have dropped off, and that's going to be significant for our program," Simonsen said. "We're still encouraging victims or survivors to reach out to us."

State funding for domestic-violence programs in Ohio is $1 million annually, compared with $5 million in Indiana, $6.7 million in Kentucky and nearly $16 million in Pennsylvania. Simonsen said ODVN is calling for $5 million in general fund support to provide prevention services, victim advocacy support and permanent housing assistance.

The domestic-violence deaths in the report include four children and one police officer responding to a call. At least 70% of the fatalities were caused by a gun and, Simonsen added, 40% involved a homicide-suicide case.

"That's an important number to think about. You know, what does mental health mean in this case when people are pushed to the point of making a tragic decision to harm their partner, ex-partner or children and then take their own life?" She said. "So what can be done to prevent those kinds of cases?"

She said the data is extremely useful to help domestic-violence organizations and law enforcement evaluate interventions such as protection orders and identify ways to prevent intimate-partner violence fatalities.

"Risk-reduction opportunities or building protective factors, building the resiliency of children that witness domestic violence; accounting for hyper-masculinity and dangerous social norms, that kind of support perpetration of domestic violence," she said.

More than 200 people are expected to attend ODVN's annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month event today, which will be held virtually for the first time.

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, and according to the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, the number of Asian American women who have experienced sexual violence could be as high as 55%.

Monicah Yonghang, bilingual advocate with Asian Services in Action Ohio, explained various cultural barriers prevent many API survivors, including immigrants and refugees, from reporting sexual violence and accessing services.

"We also noticed that they internalized a traditional gender norms," Yonghang pointed out. "Meaning that the men have more power over women, and some violence against women are just justified and OK."

The Immigrant and Refugee Ohio Coalition to End Sexual Assault hosts a conference May 26 on sexual violence and the best ways to serve communities and survivors.

Leela Karki, another bilingual advocate with Asian Services in Action Ohio, noted concerns about public shame also factor into women's hesitancy to seek help.

"There is a fear that oh, if I get added to that data, like other people, I'm going to be exposed to other people," Karki stressed. "They're gonna find out that it happened to me because the community itself is so intertwined together."

Taylr Ucker-Lauderman, chief officer of communications and engagement for the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said it is important for advocacy groups to take into account specific cultural needs when providing services.

"We find it extremely important to uplift the work and voices of those in various cultures, and especially people of color in the immigrants and refugees," Ucker-Lauderman emphasized. "We believe this is truly integral to ending sexual violence and serving survivors in our state."

Research shows sexual assault has many long-term impacts on women, including increased risk of chronic pain, diabetes, depression, suicide, and substance abuse.

Washington state Supreme Court justices are hearing a case today
that involves access to records for public employees who have survived domestic violence or sexual assault. The conservative think tank Freedom Foundation has said exemptions to the Public Records Act are being applied too broadly for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or harassment.

Deirdre Bowen, Professor and director of Seattle University's Family Law Center, said lower courts have seized on the fact that the unions who sought to stop these requests did not detail the potential harm for everyone seeking an exemption.

"They did not have evidence for each of the 1,000 different survivors saying if your information were to be released, it would create substantial, imminent physical harm to you," Brown said.

Bowen added there are a number of factors that will determine the outcome of this case, but one important factor is that the definition of domestic violence changed last July. Along with physical harm or the threat of physical harm, it also includes coercive control. Bowen said exemption cases might need to be reanalyzed under this new definition and added this case is an example of where the law fails survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

"The tragic part is there's no willing to understand the nature of how domestic violence operates and that these survivors are most at risk actually when they've exited the relationship," she said.

Bowen noted that harm from domestic violence cases can go on for years or decades and can escalate over time and explained the right to public information is not the only right at stake in this case. There's also the constitutional right for safety and protection from bodily harm.

"The ultimate question is which is more important?," she said. "Are we willing to risk that constitutional right versus access to public records?"


get more stories like this via email

A grant has been awarded to a Central Indiana group to increase awareness about domestic violence and its traumatic effect on survivors.

Indiana domestic abuse reports involving intimate partners topped 6,000 in 2021, up from nearly 5,700 the previous year.

The Domestic Violence Network received nearly $233,000 from the City of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Foundation.

Rebecca Berry, strategic collaboration specialist for the Domestic Violence Network, said the funding will be used to create a three-year strategic plan to address the demographics with the highest rates of domestic violence, although she noted it can happen to anyone.

"It doesn't matter what kind of job you have, it doesn't matter what kind of partner you have, it doesn't matter how much money you have," Berry pointed out. "Domestic violence does not discriminate."

The Institute for Women's Policy Research reported around 31% of women will experience domestic violence. For Black women, it increases to 40%.

Berry noted the definition of abuse has broadened to include more than physical and sexual violence. Stalking, withholding access to phones or birth control, harming pets, and manipulating a partner's emotions, finances or social media presence can be equally damaging.

A person being abused is often hesitant to seek help out of fear, shame or not having a place to escape. But during the pandemic, some Indiana shelters were under capacity due to shutdown safety protocols, according to a 2020 report by the state.

Berry explained the grant funding will be used for outreach to those who may be in unhealthy relationships.

"We want to link in trauma, and the ways that we have grown up, the ways that we have experienced our lives as children," Berry outlined. "So many times, those who are causing harm or perpetuating violence in an intimate partner relationship have also experienced a household where there is also domestic violence."

Service providers for abuse survivors also note they're seeing more cases involving the use of guns. The Domestic Violence Network said in 2020, 33 out of 41 domestic violence-related deaths involved a firearm.


get more stories like this via email