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Statistics bolster groups’ domestic violence fight
Take Back the Night, police, crisis center in cooperation
CUMBERLAND — In a seven-month period last year, Cumberland police officers investigated 41 sexual assaults — nearly six a month or a little more than one a week.
During that same time, 179 domestic assault incidents were reported for an average of almost 26 a month, four a week and one every other day.
It’s time, many say, to Take Back the Night. Cumberland’s first such rally drew nearly 70 people to 138 Baltimore St. on Thursday when many of those attending pledged to stop domestic violence. Several women, some willing to share their story, addressed the crowd.
“To become part of the solution, we ask that you take a stand to break the silence and take back the night,” Terry Klein, master of ceremonies for the event, said.
According to a 2000 Department of Justice study, 1.3 million women and 835,000 men in the United States are physically assaulted annually by an intimate partner. Also, 1,247 women, which is 33 percent of all female murders, and 440 men, 4 percent of all male murders, are killed by an intimate partner.
One out of three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused.
A National Violence Against Women survey showed 70 percent of the victims in rape and sexual assaults were women.
Sabrina Frost, a member of the Frostburg Dance Academy that performed, read the statistics regarding children.
More than half of the victims live in households with children younger than 12 and anywhere between 3.3 million and 10 million children annually witness domestic violence.
Cumberland Police Chief Charles Hinnant said officers can make an arrest if they believe probable cause exists that a spouse or domestic partner has been battered. A report must be made within 48 hours of the alleged assault.
Anyone who is a victim of abuse and believes she is in “serious and immediate personal danger” should call police. With what’s known as a warrantless arrest, the victim can leave with her children, clothing, personal items or medications.
“Before, officers couldn’t make a warrantless arrest unless the crime was committed in their presence,” Hinnant said. “And before, the police officer would leave, leaving the victim in the same situation and maybe worse.”
Officers now are involved in following up after those initial domestic violence calls with the use of lethality assessments, which help determine the danger level for victims.
Lynette Irlmeier, executive director of the Family Crisis Resource Center, which is celebrating its 30th year, said Cumberland is touted statewide as the best in the state when it comes to those lethality assessments and follow-up. Statewide, the average is 27 percent of victims come in for services. In Cumberland, the number has reached 57 percent.
Of the women murdered, statistics have found only 4 percent received services, services Irlmeier calls life-saving.
She also took the time to honor the hundreds of women and children who did not survive every year and said the rally causes her to think of the women who live in fear in their own homes.
“The first night in the shelter in a strange bed in a strange room living with strangers in a house they’ve never been to before, (victims say) it’s the first night they’ve had a good sleep in a long time,” she said. “That’s not symbolic, but reality.
“It can’t end here,” she said. “Tonight does not end the fight against domestic violence but recognizes the fight must go on.”
Before survivors spoke, a candlelight ceremony that symbolized hope and enlightenment and a moment of silence was held.
More than 300 T-shirts created by survivors, family and friends have been displayed in downtown businesses and inside at the rally as part of the Clothesline Project. A quilt by the Family Crisis Resource Center also was displayed.
Allegany College of Maryland spearheaded the effort with community partners the Family Crisis Resource Center, Allegany County Health Department, Cumberland Police, YMCA, The Mental Health Center, Western Maryland Area Heath Education Center and the Downtown Cumberland Business Association.
For more information, visit www.takebackthenight.org, or call the crisis center at (301) 759-9246 or its 24-hour help line, (301) 759-9244.
Contact Maria Smith at msmith@times-news.com.
