Guest opinion

By Bill Lockyer
California Attorney General

Domestic violence continues to be an epidemic in California. In 2002, California local law enforcement agencies received 196,569 domestic violence-related calls for assistance. During the same year, there were 153 murders committed as a result of intimate partner violence, and 50,479 adults and juveniles were arrested for spousal abuse.

Over the past 15 years, California’s criminal justice agencies have taken on many new responsibilities to reduce the incidence and devastation of domestic violence. But how are these agencies carrying out those responsibilities? And how effective are their efforts?

These are difficult questions to answer because the necessary information is scattered across numerous autonomous agencies that make up each county’s criminal justice system. The policies and practices of these agencies vary widely among the 58 counties.

To answer the important question of how California is dealing with domestic violence, I recently convened the Attorney General’s Task Force on Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence.

The task force is holding regional hearings throughout the state this year to study local policies and practices, identify those that work well and determine any that may harm or threaten the safety of domestic violence victims.

Members of the task force include representatives of local and state law enforcement agencies, probation offices, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, domestic violence victims’ advocates and public health officials, practitioners and researchers.

I’ve asked the task force to focus its fact-gathering and assessment efforts on the following four areas: 1. How are domestic violence restraining orders obtained and enforced? 2. How does law enforcement respond to mandated reports of domestic violence by healthcare practitioners? 3. How do the courts, probation and batterer intervention programs hold batterers accountable? and 4. How do prosecutors’ offices handle misdemeanor domestic violence cases?

A regional hearing is scheduled for Los Angeles on June 2. Additional hearings are planned for Fresno in August, Redding in September and Sacramento in October.

My hope is that we will have strong participation from communities throughout the state so that we can improve our efforts to conquer domestic violence. When the hearings are completed, the task force will submit a report describing current practices, identifying critical needs, highlighting successful approaches and proposing possible legislative changes.

The report will be designed to assist local criminal justice agencies and serve as a blueprint for the Attorney General’s Office in its efforts to prevent domestic violence.

For additional information about upcoming hearings, agendas, task force members, transcripts of hearings, or to provide written testimony if you’re unable to attend a hearing, visit www.safestate.org/index.cfm?navid=386 or call my Crime and Violence Prevention Center at (916) 324-7863.

April is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.