8,001 domestic violence cases in N.H. last year

CONCORD, N.H. --Some 8,001 people, including 7,610 women, were victims of domestic violence in the state last year, according to statistics collected by the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.

The total has held relatively steady over the past eight years, with a high of 8,303 in 2003 and a low of 7,869 in 2004, the coalition said.

Grace Mattern, the coalition's executive director, said communities need to take a more active role in helping victims and preventing violence. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

"We can't expect courts and police and crisis centers to be the only ones trying to end domestic violence," she said. "It takes the whole community to understand how important it is."

Bola Afolayan, of the Derry office of the YWCA Crisis Service, said the group handled more domestic violence cases and saw an increase in hospital visits last year. The YWCA runs a shelter, provides support to victims who are hospitalized, and helps with legal and relocation costs.

"This office alone saw 332 cases in 2005," Afolayan said. "There were 1,575 in Manchester."

Domestic violence is a daily concern for many police departments. Salem had 261 calls resulting in 65 arrests last year and has responded to 227 calls so far this year, said Deputy Chief Bob Larsen.

Pelham classified 103 crimes as domestic violence last year, not counting reports of parent-child conflicts or incidents that did not include physical violence. Police also often answer questions such as how to get a restraining order or where to go for shelter or legal advice, said police Capt. Joseph Roark.

"I would venture to guess that the typical patrol officer would take an intervention role every day," he said.

Domestic violence also accounts for about half of all homicides in the state, according to state statistics.

Roark said domestic violence can lead to other problems, such as substance abuse and trouble at work or school. He said he knows of one man who had a house, a wife and children before domestic violence tore the family apart. Now, the man is homeless, he said.

"Maybe if there had been early intervention there, counseling or advice before it reached the court system, maybe we would have prevented a homeless person in our town," Roark said.

Intervention can be difficult, however. Victims may be unwilling to press charges and often return to abusive relationships repeatedly before leaving for good.

"It is understandable," Londonderry police Capt. William Hart said. "After all, we're talking about people who are involved in the most important emotional relationship in their lives. So while we need to be aggressive when a person reports a domestic abuse, we also need to be, as a society, empathetic when they don't wish to proceed."

State law allows police to make an arrest whether or not victims cooperate and to remove abusers from the home if they pose an immediate threat.

Services are also offered for abusers, said Scott Hampton, a psychologist and director of Ending the Violence, a Dover group that leads classes for batterers. He said violence is not an illness, like substance abuse or a psychological abnormality.

"It is a criminal problem. These men don't hit the judge or their boss if they get angry," Hampton said. "It is a selective anger toward their partner to intimidate."

Hampton said couples counseling is a bad idea in domestic violence cases.

"One, it would say that two people have a problem. It is an individual decision to hurt someone else," he said. "Second, it places the victim at risk because after the session, the abuser may punish the victim for airing dirty laundry."

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Information from: Eagle Tribune, http://www.eagletribune.com