Ending Abuse—Improving Lives - Florida Department of Children ...

Domestic Violence Fatality Review TeamsIn 2005, there were 881 murders in Florida. Of those murders,176 or 20 percent were domestic violence related.These figures are up a half percent from 2004, whenthere were 946 homicides, of which 184 were domesticviolence related. Of these offenses, the spouse or live-inpartner was the victim in 54 percent of the cases. Thenumber of child victims of domestic violence homicidedeclined sharply from 18.5 percent in 2004 to seven percentin 2005.In an effort to prevent these tragic deaths, many Floridacommunities have developed fatality review teams toinitiate better interagency cooperation, influence publicpolicy, and educate the public on heightened risks oflethal domestic violence. The community-based teamsare comprised of community members that representlaw enforcement agencies, state attorneys, the courts,probation and parole, social services, medical examiners,batterer intervention programs, domestic violencecenters, animal shelters, clergy, child death reviewteams, child welfare, and various other interested communityrepresentatives.In 2005, there was one new and fourteen active domesticviolence fatality review teams covering 23 counties:Bay, Brevard, Broward, Columbia (also reporting for Dixie,Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Taylor, and Suwannee),Miami-Dade, Duval, Escambia, Lee, Orange, Palm Beach,Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Sarasota (also reporting for Manateeand DeSoto), and Seminole.The Domestic Violence Program Office continued toprovide technical assistance to the local teams, which includedtravel scholarships for training. One such trainingincluded The National Conference on Domestic ViolenceFatality Review. This is an annual training event sponsoredby the National Domestic Violence Fatality ReviewInitiative (NDVFRI) to facilitate a sharing of informationand resources with teams across the country. The ProgramOffice was able to secure funds to provide financialscholarships to 33 members of local fatality review teamsto attend the 2005 training event.The 2005 conference was held in Phoenix, Arizona. Thetheme was “experience” and encouraged sharing of differentexperiences of various professionals, survivors, andcommunity members. Dr. Byron Johnson, Director, NDV-FRI made opening remarks and Lieutenant Mark Wynn, amember of the Nashville, Tennessee Metropolitan PoliceDepartment, was the keynote speaker. Lieutenant Wynnconducts training regarding domestic violence issues forprofessionals across the United States and has been arecipient of many awards.In addition to the department, the Florida Departmentof Law Enforcement (FDLE) also provides support to thefatality review teams by furnishing a standardized collectionform for the recording of their findings. FDLE issuesa report each year that documents the team activities,findings, and recommendations. (See §741.316, F.S.)In July 2006, FDLE released the Florida Domestic ViolenceFatality Review Annual Report 2006 with data andrecommendations compiled from ten of the fourteenteams. In 2005, many of the teams were still attemptingto recover from the devastating hurricanes of 2004. Thisrecovery effort contributed to several teams inabilityto review reports as usual, and in turn affected the dataused to compile the Florida Domestic Violence FatalityReview Annual Report. The participating teams includedBay, Brevard, Broward, Columbia, Lee, Orange, PalmBeach, Pinellas, Polk, and Seminole counties. Miami-Dadeand Duval review teams provided only summary informationfor inclusion in the statewide report.Data reviewed include the average age and sex of perpetratorsand decedents, the location of the incidents,weapons used, relationship, and history. The reportindicates an overwhelming number of perpetrators ofdomestic violence are male (89 percent) with the averageage being 41. Additionally, 74 percent of decedentsare female. Of the 19 fatality cases reviewed in 2005,42 percent (8) had reported prior incidents of domesticviolence and in 63 percent or 12 cases, the parties hadexperienced a significant change in the relationship.Because of the fatality review findings, the teams implementedmany changes locally, which included:• Fatality review teams are working in conjunctionwith the Domestic Violence Councils to deliver trainingon domestic violence to area clergy;• Findings and recommendations are now shared withthe public and county domestic and sexual violencetask forces;• Several policies and procedures have been institutedby multiple justice systems and community agen-Domestic Violence Annual Report 2005-200637