Intimate Violence Deaths in the News: ARTICLE: Jacksonville ...

When detective Mindy Mesh sat down Wednesday morning to discuss the most dangerous domestic violence cases from the day before, she already knew the background of a fatal case reported less than six hours earlier.
A woman who told Jacksonville police she had shot and killed her boyfriend in self-defense was involved in two earlier domestic violence cases. Both were with men other than the dead boyfriend, Mesh said.
Detectives were still investigating the homicide when Mesh, a veteran of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office family violence unit, was at the morning meeting to pick potential clients for a domestic violence prevention program called InVEST.
Started in 1999, the Intimate Violence Enhanced Services Team has had striking success.
Read JSO's domestic violent threat assessment form (link opens on scribd.com)
Since then, no client of the program has been killed by the partner they were with at the time of the intervention. One woman who left an abusive relationship after being helped by the program was killed two years later by another man.
Its track record has impressed the state, which borrowed the program for other counties to use.
On Wednesday, Mesh and a two other team members reviewed 34 cases from the day before and singled out four of the most violent for special attention.
Among them, one woman had been choked, another stabbed.
By guidelines followed by the team, the victims in the four cases are potentially in greater danger of being killed in an abusive relationship. They will be contacted by team member Sonte Pollock of Hubbard House, Jacksonville's domestic violence shelter, about their situation. If any have already fled the abuser, or are difficult to find because of homelessness or some other issue, Mesh will help track them down.
Persuading victims to take part in the program can be difficult, even when investigators think lives are in danger.
"They don't want to leave the abuser for so many reasons," Mesh said. "A lot of times it is because of the children, for financial reasons."
Some say the abuser will change or say, "?'He didn't mean to do that to me, he's not a bad person,'?" she said.
By Wednesday, 3,227 domestic abuse reports had been reviewed by the team, with 218 cases considered so vicious that the victim might eventually die violently.
Authorities said three cases so far this year are being considered domestic violence homicides of intimate partners. None of the cases this year had given early warning that the relationships would end in deaths.
They include Wednesday's case and the savage beating death of a 28-year-old woman in front of two of her children. In those cases, no recent reports were made though police had been contacted in the past regarding other partners.
When domestic violence homicides began to increase in the late 1990s, police and advocates for victims had to turn to police reports as an attempt to find signs that a relationship could turn lethal, said Ellen Siler, CEO of Hubbard House.
Siler said that of eight intimate partner killings in 1997, police reports had been written on three of those couples. Of 10 cases in 1998 there were six reports and of 13 domestic homicides in 1999 there were seven.
Advocates wanted to figure out a way to see deadly violence coming so they could sound a warning. Ideas for the program were generated by Hubbard House, the city and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
Screening starts with the initial police report with 20 questions police ask victims. Called a threat assessment, Siler likens it more to an assessment of lethality. It asks about stalking and increases in the rate of violence.
"Has your partner ever told you how they plan to kill you?" one question asks. Another wants to know if the partner has ever "used a weapon to harm you."
Patterns are critical.
If there have been four reports within six months, no matter how severe, the victim is considered in danger of being killed.
Although domestic violence can erupt in other relationships, such as parents and children or between siblings, only those between intimate partners are evaluated for intervention. More than 2,500 intimate partner cases have been reported this year in Jacksonville.
Many of those will not rise to the level to be considered for the program but Hubbard House will write letters to each of those victims to offer services.
In all cases, it is up to the victim to ask for help.
As of Wednesday, 34 victims from the 218 cases this year in which lives were considered in danger had accepted help. That can include shelter, counseling and planning for a future.
"When we're calling them we are saying, 'Based on the police report and based on the threat assessment, we're very worried about you,'?" Siler said. "?'We think you are in a potentially lethal situation.' And for a lot of victims, that is a very eye-opening statement."
In addition to the blunt assessment, clients are assured they will get particular attention from police. The abusers are contacted by detectives and told they are being watched.
"It's the suspect knowing there is someone keeping an eye on them," Siler said. "I think the two, in my opinion, is what makes InVEST work."
The success is not unnoticed. The state Attorney General's Office designated Victims of Crime Acts funds to establish InVEST in other counties, Siler said. Similar programs were started in seven counties and now are in 11.
In 2007, it received the U.S. attorney general's Award for Professional Innovation in Victim Services.

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