DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
We have long made the mistake of treating domestic violence as a criminal-legal issue alone, creating a system that does not work for victims and perpetuates a broken cycle of violence. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this crisis, leaving many victims trapped at home with their abusers, cut off from critical resources. Survivors need an approach that is proactive, trauma-informed, and above all, designed to support victims through the legal process and beyond. Sign on if you agree!
During the pandemic, New Yorkers have been told that staying home will protect us. For some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers, though, home comes with its own risks. In 2019 alone, the NYPD received 87,512 reports of domestic violence — and that was before COVID-19 ravaged our community, overwhelmed our hospitals, and left thousands of women and children quarantined with their abusers. Those are just the incidents we know about — given that the majority of domestic violence goes unreported it likely only represents a fraction of the real number.
The truth is that domestic violence is more than simply a justice system issue, it is a public health crisis. Our current approach forgets this, asking traditional law enforcement to respond to incidents outside of their training. We also burden victims with the impetus to report their abusers if they want anything to be done, while providing no support through the inevitable consequences that follow. Choosing between familiar harm in the present and unfamiliar harm in the future, survivors are often asked to relive traumas and subject their families to a drawn-out legal entanglement, none of which is guaranteed to interrupt the cycle of abuse. It should come as no surprise that so many survivors stay silent.
Police are not social workers, an arrest is not a fix-all for harm, and incarceration does not make trauma disappear. Lucy understands this, and will take a trauma-informed approach to domestic violence that focuses on providing survivors with the resources they actually need — not just the resources the criminal justice system has been traditionally prepared to offer.
To provide comprehensive support to domestic violence victims, Lucy will:
Partner with community-based programs to expand early interventions for children and young adults who are exposed to domestic violence.
Promote school-based healthy relationship training to proactively interrupt intergenerational cycles of abuse.
Advocate for trauma-informed prosecution training across all justice system stakeholders, including for defense attorneys, judges, and law enforcement.
Emphasize coordination with social services agencies and providers.
Link victims to necessary services, regardless of whether their criminal case moves forward.
Create mechanisms for survivors to report to non-traditional sources and impanel community-based experts to engage with them.
Collaborate with domestic violence advocates from Safe Horizon in each NYPD Manhattan precinct.
Incentivize intra-family and intimate partner restorative justice where appropriate as a response to violence.
PROACTIVE APPROACHES TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
During the pandemic, New Yorkers have been told that staying home will protect us. For some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers, though, home comes with its own risks. In 2019 alone, the NYPD received 87,512 reports of domestic violence — and that was before Covid-19 ravaged our community, overwhelmed our hospitals, and left thousands of women and children quarantined with their abusers. What’s more, those are just the incidents we know about, which, given that the majority of domestic violence goes unreported, is likely only a fraction of the real number.
The truth is that domestic violence is more than just a criminal-legal issue; it is a public health crisis. Our current approach forgets this, asking traditional law enforcement to respond to incidents for which they were never intended, and burdens victims with the impetus to report their abusers, while providing them no support through the inevitable consequences that follow. Choosing between familiar harm in the present and unfamiliar harm in the future, survivors are asked to relive traumas and subject their families to a drawn-out legal entanglement, none of which is guaranteed to interrupt the cycle of abuse. It should be no surprise that so many survivors stay silent.
Police are not social workers, an arrest is not a fix-all for harm, and incarceration does not make trauma disappear. Lucy understands this, and will take a trauma-informed approach to domestic violence that focuses on providing survivors with the resources they actually need — and not just the ones that the criminal justice system is traditionally prepared to offer.
SIGN ON IF YOU AGREE
This means working within our justice system to improve how we hold people accountable, while also working to employ community-based interventions that limit the need for justice system involvement in the first place. As DA, Lucy will accomplish this by:
Partnering with community-based programs to expand early interventions for children and young adults who are exposed to domestic violence
Providing trauma-informed prosecution training and advocating for similar training across all justice system stakeholders, including for defense attorneys, judges, and law enforcement
Emphasizing better coordination with social services agencies and providers
Linking victims to necessary services, regardless of if their criminal case moves forward
Creating mechanisms for survivors to report to non-traditional sources and empaneling community-based experts to engage with them
Promoting school-based healthy relationship training to proactively interrupt intergenerational cycles of abuse
Working closely with domestic violence advocates from Safe Horizon in each NYPD Manhattan precinct
Incentivizing intra-family and intimate partner restorative justice as a response to violence to promote healing, particularly for those families that want to stay together