Chair Farías marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month and explains underreporting concerns
Chair Farías recognizes October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, says the city must acknowledge survivors, and argues that underreporting of domestic and gender-based violence to police hides the true scope and trends of the problem. She notes that relying only on public NYPD data hinders prevention programs and resource allocation.
October is recognized as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
During this month, it's important that we, as a city, acknowledge domestic violence survivors and be a voice for its victims.
But under reporting of domestic and gender-based violence incidents to the police makes it difficult to understand the true scope and trends of this type of violence in our city.
People deserve to have their needs acknowledged before a situation escalates to police intervention, but a lot of our city's reporting on domestic and gender-based violence only uses public New York Police Department data.
This fact hinders the development of effective prevention programs and resource allocation for service providers and law enforcement.