SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (WKEF) -- A new report from the Springfield Domestic Violence Coalition is showing shifting trends in domestic violence in its July Progress Report 2024.
The group does these reports monthly, compiling data from all levels, national, state, county and city to keep a pulse on the problem. A representative from the group said when they talked to city officials, there was not enough focus on the problem as a whole because jurisdictions mostly only pay attention to data from their agencies.
“What they ended up doing is pretty much dismissing the whole pie of domestic violence and really only wanting to claim their little pieces of the pie saying ‘Well, we’re responsible for this, and Clark County’s responsible for that,' but this is a whole community,” James Steward, a Springfield Domestic Violence Coalition member and criminologist said.
Steward was at the city commission meeting on Tuesday, July 16 to share new data with officials. This month’s report revealed some concerning trends.
Even though domestic violence has decreased between married couples, it has increased between non-married couples living together. “In Springfield, the percentage of husbands arrested for DV decreased from 16.9% in 2011 to 11.6% in 2023, while the percentage of wives as victims also declined from 17.1% in 2016 to 9.7% in 2023,” said the report. However, intimate partner violence of “live-in partners” increased from 18.4% in 2012 to 30.6% in 2023, according to the report.
Victims are also getting younger on average with the mean age of female victims who reported abuse in Springfield moving from 28.5 years-old in 2010 to 22.6 years-old in 2023 the report revealed.
Another troubling statistic has to do with violence toward Black women in Springfield. “The percentage of Black female victims increased from 20.7% in 2011 to 31.7% in 2023,” said the report.
Steward said another problem is the amount of cases being dismissed in court. “So, that is a vicious cycle going around and they go back out and they recommit these same crimes, which has developed a domestic violence serial offender,” said Steward.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office received a grant in 2017 and since then, more resources have been dedicated toward a program to help victims and hold abusers accountable.
Part of receiving $675,000 is reporting on performance measures. How did this money impact Clark County and the City of Springfield in the reduction of Domestic Violence? Where's the Data, what are the performance measures used to determine effectiveness?
February 14, 2018: The Sheriff’s office is one of six organizations to receive a $675K grant as part of an initiative to strengthen LE’s response to sexual and domestic violence. The grant will provide the sheriff’s office with resources, support, training and technical assistance to build capacity “and raise awareness of the existence and impact of gender bias on responses to domestic and sexual violence,” according to a news release. The Clark County sheriff’s office will work with several national agencies, including the chiefs association, U.S. Department of Justice, the Office for Victims of Crime and the National Crime Victim Law Institute “to identify aspects of agency culture that may create or sustain biases, develop sustainable strategies to address and eliminate the impact of bias on the response to and investigation of sexual and domestic violence, and implement trauma-informed, victim-centered procedures agency-wide.
Sergeant Denise Jones, the Intimate Partner Violence supervisor for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said the statistics do not show the whole picture because sometimes higher numbers mean more victims are reporting abuse instead of deciding not to report it.
More victims report DV because they don't want to report - WHAT?
“I know everybody kind of hyper-focuses on your numbers are up,” said Jones. “Higher numbers aren’t always a bad thing.
Sgt Jones said it - IT IS ALWAYS a bad thing when DOMESTIC VIOLENCE NUMBERS ARE HIGH! Q: Is this the Official Policy of Clark County? Q: Is the Official policy of the Clark County Sheriff's Office? If this is an official statement made on behalf of Clark County (who Sgt Jones Represents), then citizen voters need to make sure ALL three members of the Clark County Commissioners get voted out of office. This implicitly implies there is absolute no concern for the well-being of Domestic Violence Victims - which are residents of Clark County
If I’m doing a good job and I’m out in the community and they know we have a solid program, which we do here in Clark County, they’re more apt to follow up with me, more apt to interact with me.”
Why do Domestic Violence victims need to follow up with you? YOU need to follow up with them! Victims need protection orders, solid probable cause reports to prosecute offenders, GPS tracking on violent offenders and serial offender, victims need to be protected from intimidation by offenders that keep them from testifying.
Springfield’s Deputy Director of Public Safety said the city is constantly working with other agencies, including the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and community partners to decrease this type of violence.
The City has no data, The City of Springfield HAS never... NEVER presented data on this subject. All talk and no ACTION. Springfield Police Department reporting to OBCI on Domestic Violence have months of unreported data. Municipal Prosecutor DiBartalo has NEVER presented data on the courts dispositions for Domestic Violence.
“I feel like our people who are in the trenches if you will of this subject are our subject matter experts, and what we hear consistently is that there’s always room for improvement,” Jason Via, the deputy director of public safety for Springfield said. “The city of Springfield is dedicated to continuing these partnerships to support our victims of domestic violence and this issue does remain at the forefront.”
Steward said that part of the problem with the data is that each agency at each level defines domestic violence differently. He added that organizations that work with victims often have separate data that is not reflected in criminal data. He said these two data sets need to be combined and analyzed to see the whole picture of the problem.
Please, Please, let's start talking about things that matter. Let's have a conversation about Arrests of offenders, Courts cases of offenders and their outcomes. Let's get down to business about understanding the demographics of victims and offenders and defining our most vulnerable population and what measures The City and County need to take to start reducing Domestic Violence.
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