MNADV and Partners Awarded Federal Funding to Implement and Evaluate Innovative Homicide Prevention Models
The Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence (MNADV), in partnership with the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center (JGCC) of Massachusetts, and Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell of The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing has received a Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative (DVHP Initiative) award from the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). The partnership was honored to attend an event on March 13, 2013 in Montgomery County, Maryland in which Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder announced the DVHP Initiative. To view photos from the event, go here.
This award, the first of its kind, will replicate MNADV’s Lethality Assessment Program (LAP) and JGCC’s Domestic Violence High Risk Team (DVHRT) model in communities throughout the country. The DVHP Initiative seeks to identify the key components of homicide reduction strategies and determine how to adapt as well as reproduce those strategies nationwide. Both models are leading promising practices in homicide prevention and are based on the foundational research of Dr. Campbell’s Danger Assessment.
OVW selected the partnership as national experts to provide technical assistance and implementation of the DVHP Initiative to demonstration sites. OVW also is working with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to rigorously evaluate the implementation and outcomes of the DVHP Initiative. MNADV’s LAP is an innovative protocol for first responders who assess a domestic violence victim’s risk of being killed by her or his partner and links the victim to domestic violence services. Law enforcement agencies and domestic violence programs in every Maryland jurisdiction have implemented LAP.
“The Initiative will give us as technical assistance providers, our partner sites and eventually practitioners across the country, the best opportunity we have ever had to effectively allow high-risk victims of domestic violence to be safer, more secure, and in charge of their own lives,” said Dave Sargent, Lethality Assessment Program Coordinator, Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence.
JGCC’s DVHRT includes representatives from local victim services, law enforcement, state’s attorneys’ offices, and hospitals who identify domestic violence victims who are at the greatest risk of being re-assaulted or killed and develops individualized intervention plans to save victim’s lives. DVHRTs have been implemented in 26 jurisdictions in Massachusetts.
“We are honored to have been selected for this federal award. It provides a great opportunity for us to collaborate with two nationally known organizations to provide best practices to other communities in ways that are proven to help save lives,” said Suzanne Dubus, CEO, Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center.
Nearly 1,200 domestic violence victims are murdered by their intimate partners in the U.S. each year. In Maryland, 37 domestic violence victims were killed by their current or former intimate partner in the past year (between July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012).
“Abused women who used domestic violence services were almost never the victim of murder or attempted murder. We know we can save lives by connecting high-risk victims with these services and holding perpetrators accountable. The Danger Assessment enables first responders to make that crucial connection when it is needed most,” said Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell, The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.
For more information on MNADV and the LAP, go here.
For more information on the March 13, 2013 Announcement Event, go here.
For more information on the Obama Administration’s commitment to reducing domestic violence homicides, go here.