Domestic Violence Is Linked to Other Violent Crime, Recidivism in Kentucky, Study Finds

 

By Sarah Ladd

Reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. 

Domestic violence drives other violent crime in Kentucky and contributes to criminal recidivism all while draining law enforcement and court resources across the commonwealth, reports the Council of State Governments.

Over the past two years, the council’s Justice Center dug into Kentucky’s domestic violence data. Representatives from the nonpartisan organization presented their wide-ranging findings to the legislature’s Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary Friday.

David D’Amora, a senior policy advisor at the Justice Center, said Kentucky has a “high prevalence of domestic violence and victimization,” which is a “major driver” of other violent crime. Reducing this crime by 25% could save the state $10 million over five years.

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Kentucky has higher rates of domestic violence than the national average: 48% of Kentucky women will experience intimate partner violence or stalking, compared with 47% nationally. About 52% of men in Kentucky will also experience this, which is higher than the national percentage of 44%, according to the center’s data.

The state does well in several ways, he said, including passing a law in 2025 to stiffen penalties for those who violate protective orders.

Still, D’Amora said, “there’s significant room for improvement in how the commonwealth supports and provides resources to victims.”

Kentucky does not compensate victims through the Office of Victims of Crime as much as most of its neighbors. This office helps victims pay for medical and funeral expenses, mental health treatment or other necessary costs.

“Some of this just has to do with the complication and how people file or need to file,” D’Amora said. “It’s not Kentucky’s unwillingness to do so, but there are just some barriers in the way that make it difficult for folks to file and get that compensation.”

Just 3% of Kentucky domestic violence victims receive compensation. That’s higher than 2.6% in Indiana but lower than Tennessee (5%), Illinois (5.7%), Ohio (6.7%), Missouri (9%), West Virginia (11%) and Virginia (28%).

Center researchers “had to stop” before finishing their analysis of Kentucky’s domestic violence landscape, D’Amora said, because “federal funding that was available for this work went away.”

“We wanted to come back to present what we were able to find before we had to stop,” he said. “We’re here today on our own dime. We’re not here today because the federal folks are continuing to fund the project. The project is over, and we had to stop sort of midstream.”

By the numbers

Over the six-year period analyzed by the Council of State Governments, around half of all of the violent crimes in Kentucky involved domestic violence.

Between 2016–2021, of the 228,201 crimes, 108,401 — 48% — were related to interpersonal violence.

“We suspect that it is higher than that,” D’Amora said. “What we know from research is that when we look at the (National Incident-Based Reporting System) numbers, that the incidents where alcohol or drugs are involved, there’s typically significant under reporting. It would not surprise me if we were looking at close to double that amount in these types of crimes.”

Other data presented to the committee showed:

• From 2016 to 2021, 22% of homicide victims, 62% of kidnapping victims and 59% of simple assaults were also survivors of intimate partner violence.
• From 2016 to 2021, alcohol and/or drugs were involved in at least 24% of all intimate partner violence cases.
• Both incidents of intimate partner violence and arrests increased over the six years the council analyzed.
• From 2008 to 2022, charges filed in Kentucky regarding violations of protective orders are up 43%. Convictions for those violations have increased 124%.
• From 2016-2022, filings for temporary protective orders increased by nearly 10%. The number of permanent orders granted during that same time period decreased by about 23%.
• As of September 2024, about 84% of law enforcement officers did not have screening tools to evaluate the level of danger a survivor of domestic violence was in. Nearly 90% of officers surveyed at that time reported having policies on how to respond to domestic violence and 97% said they’d received some guidance.
• In 2022, 33% of people in Department of Corrections custody had been defendants in prior domestic violence-related civil protective order cases.
• In 2022, 26% of people under supervision from the Department of Corrections had been defendants in prior domestic violence-related civil protective order cases.
• From 2018-2022, about 8% of perpetrators were reported in two or more incidents over the five year period. Repeat calls to the same location are a “key issue” in these cases, D’Amora said, adding that targeting response efforts on those repeat offenders could help reduce recidivism.
• In 2022, there were about 39,000 law enforcement responses to domestic violence reports and 9,472 arrests. Each of these cases can take more time than other calls and more officers per response. Meanwhile, 80% of law enforcement around Kentucky said they don’t have a large enough staff to effectively handle the caseload.

Looking to North Carolina

The High Point Police Department in North Carolina has seen “substantial reductions” in its domestic violence recidivism by targeting people who’ve already offended, D’Amora shared as a potential model for Kentucky to study.

“The model has them identifying the people who are most likely to commit violent crimes, investigating carefully and prosecuting, pursuing criminal charges, notifying them that future crimes will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, offering resources in the community to help people who commit (domestic violence) change their lifestyles, following up with those people in their progress to ensure they’re not committing further crimes, and then evaluating each case to determine if the individual was helped,” he said.

These interventions lowered their rates of interpersonal violence homicides, domestic disturbance calls, domestic violence reoffenses and more. Victim injuries and arrests fell from around 67% to 47%, according to the council’s data.

“Did they make it go away? No,” D’Amora said. “Did they significantly increase public safety? Yes, very much so, as well as helping lower the number of resources that were being used for this problem.”

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.

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Previously Published on kentuckylantern with Creative Commons License

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