Jury Assails County Failure to Assist Battered Women

More than 90% of battered women who seek shelter in Los Angeles County are unable to find it, according to a study released Thursday by the county grand jury.

The grand jury castigated the county for both failing to provide adequate services for battered women and failing to coordinate and publicize the programs that are already available.

Despite the escalating numbers of women who need refuge from battering, the report finds that most are forced to turn to private agencies for help--if they get help at all. There are no county programs that specifically target battered women, the report concludes

“Some of the statistics that we generated are really horrendous,” said Cecil Greenwold, chairman of the grand jury committee that issued the report.

“It surprised us to find that it (the battering of women) stretches across all economic, racial and ethnic lines,” Greenwold said. “No one group is exempt. That was scary.”

According to the 58-page study, there are 18 shelters for battered women in Los Angeles County, offering 400 beds that can accommodate 150 families at any given time. That represents less than 10% of those who seek shelter, Greenwold said.

The shelters, all of which are run by private, nonprofit agencies, report receiving 300 calls a month from women seeking some form of help or information.

When shelters for battered women are not available, facilities for the homeless may be an alternative, the report says. But homeless shelters usually cannot accommodate children and offer none of the specialized services that a battered woman needs, according to the report.

Domestic violence accounts for 15% of the calls received by the Sheriff’s Department and up to 40% of the assault cases handled by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Nevertheless, the report charged, county services are “not responsive to the special needs of battered women.” Those needs include counseling, child care, emergency transportation and safety from the abuser, which often must be provided in a secret haven.

Support Groups

Battered women who turn to the county are usually sent to the Department of Public Social Services, which in turn tries to link them to support groups. The district attorney’s office also assists them in prosecution of the attacker.

Among its recommendations, the grand jury urged the Board of Supervisors to draw up a single master list of all available public and private services. The list would then be given to agencies that aid women who report abuse. Currently, several different lists exist, and efforts by the county, city and private agencies are often duplicated.

Similarly, the Sheriff’s Department was asked to give fact sheets to women every time deputies respond to domestic violence calls and to provide volunteers for follow-up work with victims.

A hot line for batterers also should be established, the grand jury urges. Counseling and other services for men who batter women are even less available than services provided to their victims.

The panel called on the Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the district attorney’s office to computerize and standardize their tallies of domestic violence cases.

In 1987, city and county authorities recorded 39,898 calls for assistance involving incidents of domestic violence. But because women are often afraid to turn in their mates, the crime may go under-reported and underestimated, the grand jury concludes.