Fight for domestic violence prevention continues

For the third consecutive year, efforts to establish a domestic violence prevention fund through a proposed increase in the marriage license fee failed at the Rhode Island Statehouse.

While the Senate passed a measure to create a domestic violence prevention fund with the purpose of funding evidence-based programs for preventing domestic and dating violence, the House of Representatives held a similar bill for further study before the General Assembly adjourned June 25.

But Rhode Island Coalition against Domestic Violence Executive Director Deborah DeBare isn’t giving up.

“What we’re planning to do is re-group over the summer and have some more conversation with some of the key leadership in the legislature and find out what we have to do to have a funding stream established next year,” DeBare said.

“It may involve a different mechanism or it may involve some other changes to the way we’ve approached it, but we’re definitely going to pursue it again next year because it is a total priority for the community.”

On June 18, the Senate passed legislation sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin (D-Dist. 1, Providence) creating a new fund to be administered by the coalition aimed at preventing domestic and dating violence.

The approval followed a June 9 Statehouse rally during which domestic violence prevention activists handed out nearly 100 orange pins bearing the number 500 – the estimated number of children present at domestic violence arrests in Rhode Island in the previous 90 days since March 11.

That was the date the House Judiciary Committee considered a companion bill introduced by Rep. Christopher R. Blazejewski (D-Dist. 2, Providence) and recommended it be held for further study, repeating the same path of similar bills in 2013 and 2014.

Children are present at 40 percent of all domestic violence incidents in Rhode Island resulting in an arrest, according to data compiled by the state’s Supreme Court Domestic Violence Training and Monitoring Unit. That amounted to 2,018 incidents in 2013 or nearly six cases in which a child witnesses domestic violence occurring every day in Rhode Island.

Exposure to domestic violence can cause significant distress for children and lead to mental health problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety that can last into adulthood.

Researchers have found that children who witness domestic violence are more prone to having concentration and memory problems and difficulty with school performance compared to children who don’t have such exposure.

In addition, there is a strong association between witnessing domestic violence as a child and becoming a victim or perpetrator of it as an adult.

Both the Senate and House bills sought to increase the state’s $24 marriage license fee to $70 with $44 of the new surcharge going to a new domestic violence prevention fund and $2 retained by the respective municipality where the license was issued to cover administrative costs.

DeBare estimated that the fee increase would have generated about $250,000 annually for the fund.

But while Rhode Island still is among the states with the lowest marriage license fees, the House leadership appeared philosophically opposed to such a funding mechanism.

“The House did not support this legislation because it doesn’t make sense to all those people entering a marriage to force them to pay for a domestic violence prevention program,” House spokesman Larry Berman said. “One has nothing to do with the other. What’s the connection between a marriage license and a fee for domestic violence?”

“The state only charges domestic violence fund fees in criminal cases that actually involve domestic violence. We don’t attach domestic violence prevention fees to cases having nothing to do with domestic violence.”

DeBare said she remained hopeful that House legislators will move forward and establish a fund next year.

“We made a tremendous amount of progress this year with the legislature, I think, in terms of helping them understand the evidence behind prevention and the cost benefit value of supporting prevention initiatives,” DeBare said.

“Every year that we are unable to launch this initiative is another year where too many children witness domestic violence, and too many incidents could have been prevented.”