CASE STUDY | DOMESTIC VIOLENCE NET WORK
CASE STUDY:
EXPOSING THE SCOPE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
INDIANAPOLIS – The Domestic Violence
Network (DVN) website features “Heather’s
Story” among other videos in the Power
of Images series that shares the faces of
domestic violence in Central Indiana.
Heather died in 2007, the victim of brutal
attack by her high school boyfriend.
Stories like Heather’s help communicate
the real and devastating impacts of
domestic violence, but DVN also wanted to
communicate the scope of need for services
in Marion County, where it works with
community members to advocate, educate
and collaborate for an end to domestic
violence.
For us, it is crucial to be able to understand
the state of domestic violence in our service
area before we rally resources and supporters
to the cause,” says Chris Warren, DVN Director
of Community Engagement. “Before we
partnered with SAVI, it was very difficult for
us to generate reliable statistics, especially for
the criminal justice system in Marion County.
To illustrate the far-reaching effects of
domestic violence in Marion County and
understand some of its root causes, DVN
engaged the experts at SAVI to analyze data
from the criminal justice system.
“Working with SAVI has been great, because
they’ve been very efficient in taking our vision
and making it a reality,” says Kelly McBride,
the DVN Executive Director. “Attempting to
link and analyze the data we needed before
SAVI was tedious, but it was all so easy once
we partnered with SAVI.”
The DVN and SAVI partnership produced the
Domestic Violence in the Criminal Justice
System Marion County, Indiana report in
April 2014.
“Our SAVI team used special techniques to
link criminal justice records together in ways
never done before to get the most accurate
profiles of victims and perpetrators who’ve
moved through the legal system,” says Sharon
Kandris, SAVI project director.
“SAVI generated reports that answered many
of the questions we had,” McBride says. “By
having a better understanding of domestic
violence in the criminal justice system, we are
able to better allocate resources.”
More effective DVN services means
intentional work to educate and collaborate
with the community, which will ultimately save
lives and prevent more stories like Heather’s
from becoming a terrible reality for families
and friends.
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