Fatalities

Domestic violence is a powerfully destructive and lethal force that spares very few communities. Each year, PCADV contracts with a clipping service to chronicle domestic violence-related fatalities in Pennsylvania. Each year, the numbers are high and the killings are horrendous. Each year, we add more and more newspaper articles to our already overflowing shelves, which hold the visible evidence of the grim toll domestic violence is taking here in our Commonwealth.

Between 2000 and 2007, at least 1,100 people died as a result of domestic violence in rural towns, upscale suburbs and inner cities across Pennsylvania.

So many domestic violence homicides have a sad and hauntingly familiar story victims attempting to end abusive relationships, many seeking legal protections and hoping to obtain custody of their children, all the while frantically trying to stay safe, and desperately clinging to a dream of starting over.

But, tragically, all those hopes and dreams ended abruptly with a bullet to the head a knife in the heart, a microwave in the face, a pillow over the face, a car pinning the body up against a brick wall, a pair of hands around the neck, a can of gasoline and a match, a crowbar, a flashlight, a bat to the body, a shove out of a moving pickup truck. They were killed as they slept in their beds and as they fled for their lives.

Fatalities are often the vicious and violent acts of perpetrators who share chillingly familiar patterns of behavior intimidation, obsession, possession, revenge. Many perpetrators had a history of violence with previous partners and had multiple protection orders issued against them in the past. A gun is the weapon of choice for the majority of perpetrators.

The victims werent very different from any one else in the communities in which they lived and died. They were babies, young children and teenagersexpectant mothers, stay at home moms and grandmothers police officers, bartenders, bankers, teachers, florists. They were dating, living with, married to, separated/divorced from or working with their abusers.

There is a feeling of almost unbearable sadness as, year after year, we count up the toll of unfinished lives. It is all the more crushing to realize that domestic violence homicides often are preventable. But in order to prevent these fatalities, we first need a clear understanding of what´s going on and what can be done differently in our systems, our services, our awareness of and responses to domestic violence.

For this reason, PCADV is coordinating a Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project and pursuing passage of legislation that will bring together key state and local leaders, agencies and systems in a collaborative, focused examination of the circumstances surrounding domestic violence-related homicides and suicides here in our Commonwealth. The proposed legislation will help identify gaps in systems, missed opportunities and barriers to safety with a goal of reducing lethality.

Domestic Violence Fatality Review In Pennsylvania

Given the high death toll domestic violence has consistently taken, PCADV has established the statewide Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project to ascertain the potential areas of improvement in prevention, intervention, and response efforts.

Purpose of Fatality Reviews

The fatality review process assumes that the circumstances of untimely deaths are likely to be repeated and that detailed examination can lead to important insights regarding risks, intervention, and prevention efforts. The process rests on the notion that in-depth analysis of a small number of cases can provide a window into problems with system response, which may affect a large number of people. The goal of fatality review is not to blame or point fingers at any one system or entity; rather, the goal is a focused, multidisciplinary examination into the circumstances surrounding a fatal incident for insight into how future deaths may be prevented through strengthening our systemic responses.

Mission of the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project

The mission of the PCADVs Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project is to examine domestic violence-related homicides and suicides in an effort to reduce domestic violence in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In achieving this overarching mission, the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project will direct its efforts toward the following objectives:

• Improve public and systems understanding of domestic violence;
• Increase safety for victims and accountability for perpetrators of domestic violence; and
• Initiate recommendations for systems enhancements to improve domestic violence investigation, intervention, and prevention.

Structure of the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project

The mission and objectives will be achieved by using a partnership structure between a state-level Domestic Violence Fatality Review Advisory Group and local, community-based domestic violence fatality review teams. This two-level (state/local) structure allows for flexibility at the local level to accommodate varying procedures, and continuity and comparability of information at the state level.

Local Fatality Review Teams

Pennsylvania is home to seven local domestic violence and/or womens death review teams. As of 2007, existing teams are located in Berks, Bucks, Cambria, Centre, Montgomery, York, and Philadelphia counties. These teams review homicides, suicides, suspicious deaths, and occasionally critical incidents. The examination of these incidents leads to recommendations for improvement in systems, enhanced prevention and intervention strategies, and greater coordination among systems responding to domestic violence. Recommendations from these teams range from changing an intake form for a local healthcare provider to creating new statewide laws to address a particular issue. PCADVs Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project helps to promote and enhance the successes of these existing fatality reviews.

Domestic Violence Fatality Review Advisory Group

In 2004, PCADV convened a statewide advisory group to assess local fatality review teams recommendations from a statewide perspective and to help where possible with implementing the recommended changes. The statewide advisory group is well attended by local fatality review team representatives, including the Pennsylvania State Police, the District Attorneys Association, the Coroners Association, the Sheriffs Association, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Office of the Victim Advocate, the Attorney Generals Office, the disabilities community, batterers intervention services, members of the bench, legislative staff, domestic violence advocates, and many others. This group of organizations and individuals comprising the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Advisory Group has unanimously agreed to direct its efforts toward the following duties:

• Advise and consult with Domestic Violence Fatality Review Teams (Teams) in Pennsylvania
• Provide education and technical assistance to Teams
• Develop minimum data collection guidelines for Teams
• Receive summary fatality review reports and recommendations from the Teams
• Analyze data from the Teams reports to identify statewide trends and patterns associated with domestic violence related fatalities
• Recommend changes to domestic violence prevention, intervention, and investigation efforts and monitor the implementation of these recommendations
• Prepare an annual report of findings, recommendations, and steps taken to implement recommendations

Essentially, the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Advisory Group is charged with supporting and assisting the Teams; coordinating, collating, and analyzing the data produced by the Teams; and producing statewide recommendations for system improvement based on this information. Members of the Advisory Group have made the commitment to take this information back to their systems and work toward positive change.