Disturbing Domestic Violence Trends in Worcester

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Sandy Meindersma, GoLocalWorcester Reporter

Domestic violence has been on the rise since 2007 in Worcester. Through an information request, GoLocalWorcester received the last five years of domestic violence calls and arrests from the Worcester Police Department, which also included statistics on temporary restraining orders and confirmed domestic homicides.

Police have responded to more calls, arrested more abusers and more restraining orders have been handed out in a five year period. Last year, police made 968 arrests involving domestic violence compared to 723 in 2007. Restraining orders were issued to 1228 people last year compared to 1134 in 2007. Victims called police 3041 times in 2011 while five years ago 2820 calls were made.

Domestic Violence in Worcester

While numbers are up across the board over the last five years, there has been a bell curve in the trend.

There were nearly 30 percent more calls for service and 23 percent more domestic violence arrests in 2008 compared to 2007. Those trends continued to increase in 2009, when calls for domestic service topped 4000 and nearly 1000 arrests were logged.

Calls for service declined in 2010 and 2011, and domestic violence arrests dropped in 2010 to 867 before climbing to 968 in 2011.

GoLocalWorcester’s calls and emails to the Worcester Police Department seeking comments on the data were not returned since Thursday.

Trend Mirrors Recession Timetable

District Attorney Joseph Early said the 2009 spike seemed to tie into the economic recession.

“When you have people out of work, people trying to pay the rent and the mortgage and people are at risk for losing their homes, it creates tension,” Early said. “But it’s not the only reason for the spike.”

Early said he has three full time attorneys in his domestic violence unit, who each handle approximately 700 cases annually.

“Even with all of our preventative actions, we still have cases that get turned over to be prosecuted,” he said.

Linda Cavaioli, executive director of the YWCA, which runs the Daybreak program for battered women, weighed in on the matter.

“It’s there in a difficult economy,” she said. “And (domestic violence) may increase, in frequency or in the dangerousness, but a tough economy won’t create the situation.

Domestic Violence Prevention

Early said his office is working very hard to break the cycle of domestic violence through prevention.

“You can’t arrest your way out of the cycle,” he said. “You’ve got to think prevention, and you have to start young. I’m really big on getting with kids and talking to them about safe dating and controlling behavior.”

Early also said his office has developed a “High Risk Team” that tries to identify and work with victims of domestic violence who may be at a higher risk of a domestic related homicide. At-risk factors include attempted strangulation, presence of a gun or weapon in the home or a relationship with a repeat offender.

There were three domestic violence-related homicides in Worcester in 2011, the most in all of the years studied.

Joseph Scott, 45, was allegedly stabbed by his former girlfriend in January; Janice Santos was allegedly killed by her husband in June and 4 year old Arianie Acevedo died in June. Her mother and the mother’s live in boyfriend have been charged in her death.

Police Service Calls and Arrests are Not the Whole Story

Cavaioli said that the actual number of victims affected by domestic violence is much greater than the service calls show.

Daybreak has 1 ½ fulltime employees working as advocates for victims of domestic violence, who follow up with persons involved with police involved incidents of domestic violence.

Cavioli said that in 2011, the Worcester Intervention Network, as the team is called, responded to 5126 different calls.

Amada Sagarin, director of Daybreak, said the numbers can be misleading.

“Domestic violence is always happening, at a pretty level rate,” she said. “Our goal is to get as many people connected with the services they need as possible.”

Daybreak’s domestic violence hotline saw a spike in its call numbers during fiscal 2009, to 6523, which dropped to 5769 for fiscal 2010.

“But it was back up to 6304 in 2012,” Cavaioli said. “It fluctuates, but the numbers remain high.”

Cavaioli said the Worcester community does an excellent job connecting people in need of services with those services.

“This community is very progressive in its approach to domestic violent services,” she said. “No one of us is able to solve the problem of domestic violence, but connecting us ensures timely and appropriate delivery of services.”

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