Boston awarded $200,000 to combat domestic violence homicides ...

The Boston Public Health Commission was awarded $200,000 Thursday by the federal government to combat domestic violence homicides through research on how to best identify and respond to the threat of spousal violence.

?We do have an awareness that we have residents of Boston who we know to be at greater and greater risk of domestic violence,? said Ann Marie Delaney, director of the Boston Public Health Commission?s Family Justice Center. ?But there is a concern the numbers will be far greater if we don?t work with our community partners to provide safety.?

The grant, one of 12 awarded to cities across the country by the Office on Violence Against Women, comes at a time of great need. Since 2003, 234 domestic violence homicides have been recorded by Jane Doe Inc., a Massachusetts-based coalition against domestic violence. In these cases, the vast majority of victims were women.

Although 2012 saw fewer instances of domestic violence homicides than previous years, three cases of domestic violence homicides were tried in the last month in Middlesex County, including the case of Lauren Astley, an 18-year old who was murdered by her 20-year old boyfriend, Nathaniel Fujita.

?We are all aware of the three recent first-degree domestic violence murder convictions in Middlesex County in the past month,? said Mary Lauby, executive director of Jane Doe Inc. ?Anyone who saw coverage was moved by the devastating impact of those murders on all affected family members. These newly funded homicide prevention efforts will save lives, make communities safer and save money for the Commonwealth.?

Mardi Chadwick, the passageway director at the Brigham and Women?s Hosptial, said many instances of murder related to domestic violence are difficult to label, and therefore numbers of domestic violence homicides might be larger than reported in Massachusetts.

Chadwick said the grant money would ensure a smoother running network for identifying dangerous and potentially life-threatening domestic relationships.

?We know we have a lot of high-risk cases and our coordination regarding the cases are not necessarily as tight or as coordinated as they could be,? she said. ?This grant is really an opportunity to provide a coordinated response in particularly high-risk domestic violence cases.?

Chadwick said a multi-pronged approach is concentrated on preventing domestic violence homicides. Certain factors, such as access to weapons, threats to kill and living situations all have been correlated to higher risk of homicide. In particular, cases of non-fatal strangulation in relationships are major warning signs, and research says make impending homicide seven times more likely, Chadwick said.

In announcing the grant recipients Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden said these grant dollars will bring about intervention in relationships that are building toward extreme violence.

?We know what risk factors put someone in greater danger of being killed by the person they love ? and that also means we have the opportunity to step in and try to prevent these murders,? Biden said. ?That?s why these grants are so important. They?ll help stop violence before it turns deadly.?

Delaney said the next year of funded research would be compiled into a work plan on Boston?s efforts to fight domestic violence homicides. Three subsequent grants will also be available from the federal government in the next three years to implement the findings of the research, but it is not guaranteed Boston will receive these grants, Delaney said.

?The work plan will be presented as our research findings, and it will be looked at as a re-application for the next rounds of funding,? Delaney said.

Source: http://dailyfreepress.com/2013/03/18/boston-awarded-20000-to-combat-domestic-violence-homicides/

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