More than 100 indiginous people are missing in Washington State; other states are also plagued with high numbers. The Washington State Patrol has created a task force specifically to help locate and get answers to the epidemic of missing men and women.More than 100 indiginous people are missing in Washington State; other states are also plagued with high numbers. The Washington State Patrol has created a task force specifically to help locate and get answers to the epidemic of missing men and...

Women make up 51% of the US population, yet only 31% of elected officials are women. So why the disparity?   Well, as any woman who has run for office can tell you, there are a number of barriers and obstacles standing in the way for women who throw their hats in the ring. Money, support, personal obligations, campaigning, exposure...the list goes on and on. A number of organizations have formed in the last couple of years to help  One of them is League of Our Own Washington. Executive...

TEN MEN: A RHODE ISLAND ENGAGEMENT GROUP The domestic violence movement has grown and changed over the last 30 years, and perhaps one of the more interesting developments over that time, has been the efforts to engage men in the fight against the violence. The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RIADV) has found one way to encourage this is to annually recruit men in the community to advocate for the Coalition and against domestic violence. The Ten Men program combines...

  WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH PERPETRATOR TREATMENT? After a domestic violence arrest, perpetrators are often ordered into treatment by the courts. Treatment? That implies there is a cure. Or does it? Turns out treatment is not the panacea we would hope it is, but it may do some good. The discussion around the effectiveness of intimate partner abuser treatment is one that has been going on for a while. Does treatment help or not? The answer isn’t so simple. Just as there are different types of...

HOW ONE POLICE DEPARTMENT RESPONDS TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE You’ve seen it on the news, perhaps heard of friends or even experienced it yourself – the domestic incident call to police. We know bits and pieces, but chances are, unless you’ve experienced it personally, you don’t really know what happens after that call. What happens when police arrive? Is it really as dangerous as they say? How do the police figure out what really happened in the midst of “he-said-she-said?” Jennifer Bartak is a...

COERCIVE CONTROL: NO BROKEN BONES BUT VIOLENCE, NEVERTHELESS Isolation, entrapment, stalking, mind games, withholding, degrading…all are the strategies and the weapons of the perpetrator in debilitating and controlling relationships. The coercive control the abuser uses can create as much damage and victimization as the physical assaults often experienced in domestic violence. Lisa Aronson Fontes PhD is a senior lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is published in...

MURDER CHARGES AFTER A STILL BIRTH: A FIGHT ON BEHALF OF WOMEN How terrible to deliver a still born, full term baby. Imagine the grief. Now imagine that immediately after, police arrest you and you spend the next 15 months jailed and charged with murder of that child. That is what happened to a California woman, and she isn’t the first who has been persecuted for losing a child. Women all across the country are facing such a threat, and one organization, the National Advocates for Pregnant...

When a victime has to leave a domestic violence situation, that departure is often hindered because of abusers' threats to animals, or because the victim doesn't want to leave pets behind. It's a real problem. But one organization, Redrover, is working with that problem and creating safe solutions all across the US and Canada. Nicole Forsyth is President and CEO of RedRover, a nonprofit that helps bring animals from crisis to care, including in domestic violence cases. The three main...

SEXUAL ASSAULT ADVOCACY AND EDUCATION OVER DECADES COVID is causing upswings in domestic violence and sexual assault. True or false?  How has the response to sexual assault changed? How do we view prevention and what does that mean today? Mary Ellen Stone, Executive Director who has headed Washington State’s King County Sexual Assault Resource Center        has worked as a leader in changing the landscape of sexual assault prevention, education and victim advocacy for nearly 40 years. Who...

The horror stories about domestic violence, divorce, child custody and the too- often devastating decisions handed down in family court abound. This week's show features a retired judge who advocates and teaches about how abusers use the court system, and many of his insignts and experiences shed some light on what happens in courts when abusers use the courts to further abuse their victims.   Judge Eugene Hyman served 20 years on the Superior court in the Criminal, Family, Juvenile, and...

Human trafficking is a problem affecting women and girls throughout the world, but it is a woman right here in the United States who shares her experiences, her trauma and, significantly, her recovery. Siobhan Bennett has been CEO of a national political advancement organization, is the former head of a Washington DC organization working to get women elected to office and is currently chief strategic officer for a legal defense and education nonprofit. That’s her professional background. Her...

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FROM A POLICE PERSPECTIVE We hear from lawyers, judges, victims, advocates and even ministers about domestic violence, but how often do we hear from police officers about their understanding of domestic violence, it's perpetrators and victims, and its prosecution? Lt. Mark Wynn (ret), a former police officer and member of a SWAT team for 15 years, author of police Officer Standards and Training curriculum, and key creator of the largest police domestic violence...

ABUSED MOTHERS AND CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES It is no surprise that children suffer in intimate partner abuse situations. Neither is it a surprise that some of those children are taken into care by child protective services. One group of researchers decided to take a look at the mothers in some of these situations and compare those who had children taken away, either temporarily or permanently, with those who did not. The results were revealing, to say the least. Leslie M. Tutty, PhD,...

CYBER VIOLENCE: MANY WAYS, MANY MOTIVES We have all heard of cyber bullying, but that is just one way trolls, misogynists, criminals and crazies can use the internet to target, harass, threaten, shame and terrorize their unfortunate victims. Who are the perpetrators and who do they target? What are the negative effects of these assaults? And what are we doing about it? Emma Louise Backe is a PhD candidate at George Washington University who is doing research into the politics and nature of...

VICTIMS’ ADVOCATES: WHO, WHERE AND WHAT? Relatively unnoticed by the general population during the pandemic news and focus was the April observation of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. Among those who paid attention to the event were crime victim advocates, especially Anne Seymour, an advocate for 36 years. So what does a crime victim advocate do? And when did that become a thing, anyway? Seymour, who practically invented the job, started by becoming involved at a grass roots level...

“SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH HER” IS A RED FLAG FOR BRAIN DAMAGE Those who work with intimate partner violence victims know how frequently strangulation shows up as an issue. What has not been as well known is how often that strangulation results in long-term brain damage. A recent study by researchers at Ohio State University revealed the prevalence of such brain damage, how often that damage is not recognized, and how frequently the results are interpreted as unrelated mental health...

A SURVIVOR, A MOTHER, AND A WOMEN’S COALITION Cindy Dumas and her son Damon went through hell when Damon was court ordered into the custody of his father who was sexually abusing him. After fighting for years, Damon finally was able to gain his emancipation at age 16. But that didn’t end the fight for either Cindy or Damon. They have continued the battle to save kids from bad court decisions. They have created the Women’s Coalition International. The Coalition educates and lobbies about the...

WHAT’S A SHELTER TO DO? HELPING DURING A HEALTH CRISIS Everyone is inconvenienced by the restrictions due to the COVID-19 situation but there’s inconvenience and then there’s danger. When abuse is already there, confinement with an abuser escalates all danger and trauma. DC Safe, a Washington, DC service for abuse victims, has had to ratchet up support, create new ways to help and do it all with limited funds and challenged staff. So how are they, and hundreds of other organizations,...

  GENDERED VIOLENCE IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC Intimate partner violence and abuse are bad enough but made so much worse by the world-wide pandemic and the restrictions everyone faces now. What is going on and how are we coping? Seattle’s Susan Segall, director of New Beginnings, a multi-service organization dedicated to helping survivors, explains what’d different now for victims and survivors, and how her organization is working to help those in need despite viruses and restrictions. Segall...

UC DENVER’S PROGRAM ON GENDERED VIOLENCE Once upon a time, a small group of women had a vision about how to change the world to make women safe from domestic violence so they got a grant and they set about convincing a university that such a course of study was worthy and necessary. It wasn’t easy, but they did it. And this year the program that developed from that vision celebrates 20 years and dozens of graduates and developing programs to fit an even broader vision. Join originator and...

REFORMING FAMILY COURTS There are too many stories about dangerous and ridiculous custody determinations that occur in America’s family courts. From children who are sent to live with abusers to children who are killed because the courts determine their killer should not be kept from seeing the child—the stories abound. So what are we doing about it? And who is doing it? Meet Danielle Pollack, Ambasador, Child USA, Family Court Reform, author of Kayden’s Law, and tireless worker to change...

KAYDEN’S LAW: EFFORTS TO STOP CUSTODY DECISION DEATHS Seven-year-old Kayden died at her father’s hands because a judge disregarded the father’s threats of violence against her mother. As is the case too many times, the justice system failed this child because the judge created a false equivalency between parents, one of whom was violent. And Kayden paid the price of that. So where is the uproar and public demand that the legal system get smarter? Efforts in Pennsylvania are centered around...

  DOES THE U.S. JUSTICE SYSTEM FAVOR OF RAPISTS? According to a recent article being widely circulated on the internet, all signs point to the US response to sexual abuse as being dramatically leaning in favor of sex offenders. That is according to Barry Goldstein, advocate, author, and champion of fighting gender bias in the courts. Goldstein reports in www.stopabusecampaign.org that the flawed practices of the US justice system result in that justice treating victims unfairly and...

US Response to Sexual Abuse