Domestic Abuse Reports Show Rise in Valley

Escalating reports of domestic assaults in San Fernando Valley households--obscured by a citywide drop in crime last year--have mobilized police and victims’ advocates in a battle against a troubling but largely hidden trend.

The Valley last year showed the greatest jump in the number of felony domestic assaults among the city’s four police bureaus, Los Angeles Police Department records show. While reports of other serious crimes such as rape, murder and burglary fell in Los Angeles during 1994, domestic assaults in the Valley grew 6.5% from the previous year to 4,686 cases.

Experts attribute the reported increase to widespread publicity on spousal abuse generated by the Nicole Brown Simpson murder case, as well as new police efforts to make it easier for victims to come forward. Besides more reporting of abuse, experts speculate that tensions caused by the Northridge earthquake may have also triggered increased violence at home.

Domestic assaults in city neighborhoods outside the Valley rose 1.8% in 1994 over the previous year. Adding in the Valley’s statistics, the total number of reports citywide grew 3.2% to 15,389.

The rise in domestic assaults defied a citywide drop in all major categories of crimes involving people and property last year. Most experts say victims are becoming more likely to step forward than in years past because more people know what constitutes domestic violence.

“The isolation has been broken,” said Lynn Moriarty, director of the Family Violence Project of Jewish Family Services in Van Nuys. “The Simpson case has given women the permission to call police and seek help.”

Police agree that victims of household violence--mostly women--are reporting abuse sooner.

“Typically, women have experienced abuse five times before they call police,” added LAPD Detective Mitch Robins of the Van Nuys Division. “The word is increasingly getting out that you can call us and we can do something about it.”

The increase in domestic abuse has been partially obscured by police reporting methods that lump the cases with aggravated assaults, which fell overall last year. Taken separately, however, the problem of domestic violence becomes more evident.

Last year, the proportion of domestic violence to aggravated assault grew from 34.9% in 1993 to 38.4% citywide, records show. In the Valley, domestic assaults made up 45.9% of aggravated assaults in 1994, compared to 42.5% the previous year.

Caron A. Caines, a staff attorney for the San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services Inc., said she believes the Northridge earthquake is one reason why domestic abuse is up in the Valley.

“The same sort of tensions that would cause a spouse to be abusive may have been exacerbated by the earthquake,” said Caines, who cited as evidence a study of domestic abuse in communities affected by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. “The loss of jobs, housing and possessions brought on by the quake work together to create an increased risk in domestic violence.”

The communities hardest hit by the Northridge temblor also report the most dramatic increases in domestic assaults last year. The Devonshire, Foothill and Van Nuys divisions--which serve, among other communities, Northridge and Sherman Oaks--each experienced a 10% jump in reported domestic violence over the previous year.

The increasing violence is being met with several community responses.

Using a county grant earmarked for earthquake assistance, Caines plans to open a mobile clinic to give victims of domestic violence in the northeast Valley access to restraining-order forms and the help to fill them out. The clinic, which will be housed in a van, is expected to begin operation next month.

And last fall, representatives of several social service and law enforcement agencies formed the San Fernando Valley Domestic Violence Task Force to better coordinate help to victims.

Advocates for the victims of domestic violence give praise to Los Angeles police for what they say is the department’s increasingly effective handling of spousal abuse over the last year.

“I don’t think domestic violence is up or down,” said Gail Pincus, the executive director of the Domestic Abuse Center in Northridge. “What’s different is that there has been a change in the Los Angeles Police Department.”

Last April, for example, police created major assault crime--or MAC--teams at each of its 18 divisions. The new teams are staffed with detectives specially trained to investigate domestic violence, rape and child abuse cases.

The MAC detectives have been trained to recognize that harassing telephone calls and vandalism may be a precursor to spousal violence. And on their own initiative, some detectives are trying new approaches.

The Van Nuys Division, for example, started its own Domestic Violence Response Team, which sends volunteer counselors to accompany patrol cars responding to domestic abuse calls.

The team steps in after patrol officers finish their work, offering crisis intervention for victims, a ride to the hospital or a shoulder to cry on, said Pincus, who also trains volunteers for the response team.

The volunteer counselors can gather more evidence such as photographs, bloody clothes or more specific details from victims.

“When the black and white (patrol car) leaves, they’re more relaxed with us, so we tend to get a more complete story,” Pincus said.

Since its inception last September, the team has responded to 136 calls, issued 50 emergency protective orders, taken 60 sets of photographs of injuries, relocated 24 victims and distributed $280 in emergency food vouchers, Pincus said.

Detectives in the northeast Valley are taking an educational approach after noticing that Latino victims are less likely to report domestic abuse to police. LAPD Detective Andy Monsue said that over the last year his department has worked with social service agencies to hold talks on domestic violence at local high schools, Neighborhood Watch meetings and churches.

“We’re trying to get the word out that domestic violence is against the law and that women can do something about it,” said Monsue, the MAC supervisor at the Foothill Division.

Monsue has also assembled domestic violence kits for patrol cars at his division. The kits include a camera to photograph injuries, forms for emergency protective orders and information where victims can seek counseling, as well as legal and medical advice.

Prosecution of felony domestic violence cases is also changing, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Donna Wills, acting head of a newly formed family violence division in the district attorney’s office.

Wills said that because of a new policy targeting repeat offenders with at least two prior convictions, she is expecting an increase in the number of abusers charged with felonies this year.

“Now cases that were previously discretionary as a result of this policy will” be charged as felony rather than misdemeanor crimes, Wills said. Prosecutors are also now pursuing criminal cases even when the victim wants to drop charges, as long as there is sufficient evidence.

Robins, from the LAPD, said he is planning to meet with a judge next month to discuss creating a courtroom at the Van Nuys courthouse specifically for domestic violence cases. Citrus Municipal Court in West Covina opened such a courtroom last October to try to hand down more consistent sentences and keep better track of those on probation.

Advocates such as Moriarty agree that the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson has suddenly turned international attention to the problem of spousal abuse.

“I just hope that when this case is over that the women and children will not be forgotten,” she said.

* A CHANCE TO REBUILD: Cottage gives battered women shelter and help recovering. A3