News article_project changes attitudes towards domestic violence

Duluth project changed attitudes toward abuse victims and batterers
By Maureen Boyle
June 02, 1995 6:00 AM

Fifteen years ago, a group of community leaders in Duluth, Minn. grappled with ways to deal with a rising number of domestic violence cases.
If everyone treated battered women like it was their favorite sister getting beaten, we wondered how they would react,'' recalled Ellen Pence, training coordinator of the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project.

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The result in this inland port community of about 100,000 on Lake Superior was a change in attitude and policy for police, court and probation officials - all aimed at keeping battered women safe and punishing the batterers.
What Duluth did - using close to $200,000 from federal, state, local and private sources - embraces many elements other communities have emulated in the 15 years since: quick police response, mandatory arrest of batterers, helping victims get restraining orders and prosecuting cases even if the victim is reluctant.
After the new policies were enacted, the city saw what Ms. Pence called ``a huge increase in arrests'' of batterers and cases flowing into the courts.

Victims reluctant to testify weren't pressured to take the stand. ``The prosecutors said they understood and basically made a case without them,'' she said.
Slowly, more batterers were convicted. ``We went from 20 convictions a year to 200,'' Ms. Pence said.

Batterers were ordered into treatment or jail and any repeat violent acts were reported to the court.
By 1994, one in every 19 men in the city had been through the court system for abuse.

To keep the children in touch with both parents - and to avoid an escalation of violence over visitation issues - a center at the local YMCA was opened to provide a neutral setting for abusing parent and child to meet.

The center's staff monitors the visitations, keeping written notes and informally helping the abuser hone parenting skills. The victims and abusers come and go through separate doors, never seeing each other.

As a result, more women felt comfortable seeking help. ``We went from 90 protection orders to 300,'' Ms. Pence said.
And the city began seeing some results.

Ms. Pence said there were fewer life-threatening assaults and women felt comfortable seeking help.

What sets the Duluth effort apart from many of its clones is a system that closely monitors how authorities deal with domestic violence on the front lines.
Police traditionally don't like to be open to scrutiny,'' Police Chief Scott Lyons said. That really is what is very special about what we are doing here.''

Each day, representatives from the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project review each police report on a domestic violence incident to see how the cases are handled.
It's mandatory that we leave reports on all domestic calls. They always have reports to look at, to review, to see if the officer acted appropriately,'' Chief Lyons said.

The daily reviews are helpful to the department and have helped the city refine policies on how to handle the domestic violence issue, Chief Lyons said.
We're always looking ahead,'' he said.

Chief Lyons said officers on the 134-person department now understand the problems a battered woman faces - and that they may be called to the same household repeatedly before the person leaves.

You don't have to drag anybody through this anymore,'' he said. ``They realize there is no simple solution.''

But the program still hasn't accomplished what its framers hoped.
We did think if we did all of this, guys would be too scared to batter,'' Ms. Pence said.

While battered women are safer and can get help easier and the type of violent behavior seen by authorities is not as severe, cases continue to flow into the system.

We haven't seen it as a prevention program. There are just as many cases as there were 13 years ago,'' Ms. Pence said. ``Maybe we're poo-pooing what we've accomplished sofar . . . We still have more work to do.''

Refer from: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19950602/NEWS/70308089/-1/SPECIAL11