Domestic and Sexual Violence in Virginia - Virginia Attorney General

ExecutiveSummaryOn a daily basis, domestic and sexual violenceconfront our citizens and our communities. In2007* alone, 25% of all homicides were related to domesticand intimate partner violence; 1 5,009 forcible sex offensesand 22,515 incidents of assault and battery against a familyor household member were reported to law enforcement; 229,934 emergency protective orders for family abuseincidents were issued by magistrates; 3 and 6,436 men,women, and children stayed in domestic violence shelters. 4In 2008, lawmakers, agencies, and organizations continuedtheir efforts on the state and local level to combatdomestic and sexual violence in the Commonwealth.The Virginia General Assembly enacted important legislationto assist victims of sexual and domestic violence.Among the significant changes to Virginia law were:eliminating the defense of marriage in statutory rape cases,allowing victims of sexual assaults to undergo forensicexaminations without requiring their participation in thecriminal justice system, preventing polygraph testing ofvictims as a precondition to investigation or prosecutionof sexual assault cases, expediting entry of protective ordersinto the Virginia Criminal Information Network (VCIN),expanding the pilot Address Confidentiality Program,requiring retention of court records for misdemeanorconvictions of assault and battery against a family or householdmember and violation of a protective order for 20years, and requiring law enforcement agencies to developpolicies and procedures for domestic violence arrests andresponding to sexual assault incidents.Agencies and organizations continued their efforts toprovide tools and resources to prosecutors, law enforcement,victim advocates, health care providers, social serviceproviders, and allied professionals. State, local and privatepartners also continued to promote public awareness andprevention initiatives, as well as support collaborative effortsamong agencies and organizations to enhance the overallresponse to domestic and sexual violence.State and local agencies and organizations collected dataon domestic violence-related fatalities, domestic and sexualabuse, protective orders, and services to victims and childrenin order to assist in providing a broader picture of theseissues that confront our communities. A great deal of theinformation collected by local and state medical examiners,law enforcement agencies, domestic and sexual violenceservice providers, and grant programs is included in thisyear’s Report.State and local agencies also worked collaboratively onexisting as well as new initiatives to improve the responseto domestic and sexual violence at all levels. The Governor’sCommission on Sexual Violence brought togetherlegislators and representatives from state agencies, thecourt system, programs and organizations, and local sexualassault crisis centers to develop and recommend ways tostrengthen Virginia law. As a result of the collaborativework and recommendations of the Commission, severalimportant bills which enhance protection for victimsof sexual assault were enacted into law during the 2008Session of the General Assembly.Additionally, the Virginia Partnership to Encourage ArrestPolicies and Enforcement of Protection Orders (GEAP),a partnership of five state agencies and one statewidenonprofit organization, continued its efforts to provideintensive training and technical assistance, at the stateand local level, to promote practices that enhance victimsafety and offender accountability. The GEAP partnershipsponsored a number of domestic violence training eventsfor law enforcement, prosecutors, fatality review teams,advocates, and court personnel. The GEAP partnership alsoworked with community stakeholders in thirteen localitiesto assess their local responses to domestic violence.As further example of public-private collaboration, inOctober 2008, the Attorney General launched “Safe inOur Communities: Community Recognition Programfor Promising Practices in Domestic Violence Response.”This Program was developed with input from several stateagencies and organizations and is supported by VerizonWireless. The Program recognizes localities for their innovativeand promising practices to combat domestic violence.Selected communities will receive formal recognition fromthe Attorney General, as well as monetary awards from theVerizon Wireless HopeLine Program.* This report relies heavily upon statistical and numerical data from 2007 as the most complete data available as of the writing of this Report. Whereavailable, data for 2008 (through November 7, 2008, unless otherwise noted) has been included in this Report. Complete data for the year 2008 willnot be available until early 2009.ii