Domestic Violence News Headlines for the Week of Feb. 24

Here are some of the horrific domestic violence-related headlines you may have missed this week.

DOGE Allowed Access to Sensitive Information Related to DV Victims

The newly established Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, run by Elon Musk, was this week granted access to once confidential records of Housing and Urban Development according to a ProPublica investigation. The HUD Enforcement Management System, or HEMS, stores personal information on hundreds of thousands of alleged victims of housing discrimination, including victims of domestic violence. 

It’s important to note that DOGE is not a bonafide federal agency and its actions so far have come under debate as to whether or not what Musk is doing is even close to legal.

Sensitive information DOGE can now access includes medical records in disability cases, bank statements in lending discrimination files, detailed descriptions of sexual assaults in harassment cases and, perhaps most worrying, domestic violence case files that may list addresses which survivors have relocated to for their safety. 

Domestic violence rarely ends completely once a survivor leaves an abusive partner. Abusers are known to stalk, threaten, torment and relentlessly harass survivors after separation, either as a tactic to try and get the survivor to return to the abuser or simply as a way to torture the survivor because the abuser has lost control. Many survivors are encouraged to move to a new location where the abuser cannot find them, as well as change many other details of their life, from their digital footprint (social media accounts, email address) to their social security number, all in an effort to hide from an abuser who likely doesn’t have to change anything in their own life. 

It is unclear what, if anything, DOGE will be doing with this sensitive information, but the risk of it being leaked is always a concern. Previously, the DOGE website publicly released information regarding the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency responsible for designing and maintaining U.S. intelligence satellites. A former CIA official who served on classification review boards told ABC News that the incident was a "significant" breach,” though a Trump administration official disagreed.

There is a very real risk of violence, even homicide, should an abuser find out where their ex-partner has relocated to, such as in the case of a survivor who wrote to DomesticShelters.org to say that her abusive partner from 15 years ago was stalking her and had threatened to kill her. Survivors should know that stalking and death threats are illegal and threats should always be taken seriously. Research from the National Institutes of Justice found 71 percent of stalkers whose victims are current or former partners ended up following through on their threats, assaulting their victims, compared to 33 percent of non-intimate partner stalkers who followed through. 

However, threats are notoriously hard to prosecute as most abusers won’t face arrest or consequences until they’ve actually acted on their violence. 

For more information on moving after abuse, read, “Ready to Relocate?”

Source: ProPublica.org

Indiana Father Kills Entire Family and Himself After Learning Wife Was Planning Divorce

Another harrowing murder-suicide out of Indiana last Friday—31-year-old Robert Payne murdered his three young daughters and his wife before taking his own life. Police discovered Robert, 27-year-old Briana Payne and her three daughters, Aurorah, age 7; Ava, age 6; and Alayna, age 4, all dead from gunshot wounds in their mobile home around 2:45 that afternoon. Though neighbors reported they heard fighting over the previous several days, they were “shocked” that the father would kill his entire family. Briana’s former employer told reporters she also saw red flags saying, “Anybody that wanted to get close to her or the kids, [Robert] wanted to create isolation.”

Isolation is a common tactic of abusers. It’s how they can continue to exert power and control without their victim being able to find support outside the relationship, which could help her escape. While it can seem intimidating, finding a safe way to support a stranger, friend, neighbor or coworker when you see the red flags of domestic violence could save their life. Read “5 Ways to Intervene When You Suspect Domestic Violence” for more information.

Briana’s mother told the local news station that her daughter informed her husband she was going to file for divorce just days before her murder. Her mother then urged “anyone suffering from mental illness” to please get help.

A common misnomer is that mental illness is to blame for intimate partner homicide or filicide, the murdering of one’s own children. While abuse and mental illness can overlap, mental illness is not the cause of domestic abuse. Most people with mental illness do not harm their partners. 

Abusers believe they are entitled to have power and control over their partners, a learned behavior that can stem from relationships they witnessed growing up or cultural and societal influences. Treatment for mental illness is not a guarantee that there will be an end to violence. For more information, read “Abuse Cannot Be Blamed on Alcohol or Mental Illness.”

Leaving is notoriously the most dangerous time for a victim of abuse. When the abuser feels like they are losing control of their partner, they may escalate their violence. It’s important to take threats seriously and never underestimate an abuser. Having a support system, like an advocate from your local shelter, and a safety plan in place before leaving can be lifesaving. It’s also recommended that survivors don’t reveal to an abusive partner that they’re planning to leave the relationship, even if it seems unfathomable that something like this could happen. Read “Will My Partner Be Violent After I Leave?” for more information. 

Sources: Live5News, ABC7 Chicago

Domestic Violence Costs Ohio More than $1 Billion a Year

Beyond its inherent danger and death toll, domestic violence, it turns out, is also very expensive. A newly released study by the Ohio Domestic Violence Network revealed that the state’s economy loses more than $1 billion every year to costs associated with intimate partner violence. This includes the price tags of things like healthcare for victims, worker productivity losses; increased costs of law enforcement, the judicial system, jail costs; and the long-term cost impact to children. 

This cost is comparatively low to what California estimates violence against women costs the state—over $73 billion a year—and it’s not even the state thought to have the biggest domestic violence problem. Data from the World Population Review shows Oklahoma ranking first for the most prominent domestic violence problem, with nearly half the population of women, or 49 percent, experiencing domestic violence. The other four states that round out the top five include Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada and Alaska, all with rates over 43 percent. 

Statistics that try to calculate the total cost of domestic violence nationwide seem off, estimating $8.3 billion per year, far less than California’s estimate alone. Other studies have calculated a $3.6 trillion cost over the lifetime of the total number of victims in the U.S., based on 43 million adults with a history of domestic violence, which doesn’t account for the cost of children affected by domestic violence. 

It’s estimated that anywhere from 21 to 60 percent of survivors of intimate partner abuse lose their jobs due to reasons related to abuse. For many survivors, violence at home spills over into their place of employment. Over 14,000 incidences of workplace violence per year are committed by current or former partners of an employee. For those who work from home, the rate of violence during work hours is likely much higher without the protections an outside office might provide. 

For more information, read “When Domestic Violence Follows You to Work.”

Source: Fox 8