Sullivan County DA Brian Conaty -October is Domestic Violence Month

It's worth remembering how far we've come in our understanding of domestic violence as a society.

For much of our history, abuse at home was treated as a private family matter.

Mm.

In 1871, Alabama and Mississippi became the first states to outlaw wife beating.

And in 1882, Maryland became the first state to criminalize it.

Over 100 years later, in 1984, the federal government finally recognized the impact of domestic violence by passing into law the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, which funded safe shelters for victims and created the Crime Victim Fund.

Three years later, in 1987, the federal government began to observe the month of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

In 1994, Congress passed Violence Against Women Act, which was the first federal law criminalizing domestic violence and related sexual assault cases.

Just as importantly, this act of Congress established a coordinated community response with law enforcement, prosecutors, social services, and advocates working together to investigate and prosecute domestic violence cases while providing a measure of safety and assistance to such victims.

This is the model that my office follows today.

That same year, New York law imposed mandatory arrests in many domestic violence cases.

In 2010, New York enacted a cognizable criminal offense of strangulation, which contemporarily has been widely regarded as the last criminal act of domestic violence prior to murder.

Domestic violence is often misunderstood, so I'd like to be clear.

The New York State Office for Prevention of Domestic Violence defines domestic violence as a pattern of behavior one person uses to gain and keep power and control over a partner or a family member.

The agency further recognized five forms of that control, being physical, emotional, financial, technological, and sexual.

These tactics rarely happen alone.

An abuser may control the household's money, monitor a victim's phone, and cut the victim off from friends and family.

These tactics may be employed long before a bruise even surfaces on a victim.

In many cases, by the time a case reaches my office, the abuse has been going on for a long time.

Simply put, a domestic violence case is any crime committed by one member of a family or household against another.

Under New York law, that includes spouses, former spouses, people who have a child in common, people related by blood or marriage, and people who are or were in an intimate relationship, whether or not they ever lived together.

These crimes generally range from harassment, stalking, menacing, assault, strangulation, sexual offenses, violating orders of protection, and can also include crimes like identity theft or stealing from a partner or family member.

It's worth remembering how far we've come in our understanding of domestic violence as a society.

For much of our history, abuse at home was treated as a private family matter.

Mm.

In 1871, Alabama and Mississippi became the first states to outlaw wife beating.

And in 1882, Maryland became the first state to criminalize it.

Over 100 years later, in 1984, the federal government finally recognized the impact of domestic violence by passing into law the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, which funded safe shelters for victims and created the Crime Victim Fund.

Three years later, in 1987, the federal government began to observe the month of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

In 1994, Congress passed Violence Against Women Act, which was the first federal law criminalizing domestic violence and related sexual assault cases.

Just as importantly, this act of Congress established a coordinated community response with law enforcement, prosecutors, social services, and advocates working together to investigate and prosecute domestic violence cases while providing a measure of safety and assistance to such victims.

This is the model that my office follows today.

That same year, New York law imposed mandatory arrests in many domestic violence cases.

In 2010, New York enacted a cognizable criminal offense of strangulation, which contemporarily has been widely regarded as the last criminal act of domestic violence prior to murder.

Domestic violence is often misunderstood, so I'd like to be clear.

The New York State Office for Prevention of Domestic Violence defines domestic violence as a pattern of behavior one person uses to gain and keep power and control over a partner or a family member.

The agency further recognized five forms of that control, being physical, emotional, financial, technological, and sexual.

These tactics rarely happen alone.

An abuser may control the household's money, monitor a victim's phone, and cut the victim off from friends and family.

These tactics may be employed long before a bruise even surfaces on a victim.

In many cases, by the time a case reaches my office, the abuse has been going on for a long time.

Simply put, a domestic violence case is any crime committed by one member of a family or household against another.

Under New York law, that includes spouses, former spouses, people who have a child in common, people related by blood or marriage, and people who are or were in an intimate relationship, whether or not they ever lived together.

These crimes generally range from harassment, stalking, menacing, assault, strangulation, sexual offenses, violating orders of protection, and can also include crimes like identity theft or stealing from a partner or family member.