Council moves to prevent domestic violence

City Council members, representatives from various Boston agencies and a group of female public administrators from the Ukraine discussed domestic violence and services available to victims in Boston at City Hall yesterday afternoon.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has declared April Violence Prevention Month. Councilor At-Large Francis “Mickey” Roache, the Chairman of the Committee of Public Health, sponsored the forum.

He was joined by Council President Charles C. Yancey (Mattapan, North Dorchester) and Councilors Michael Ross (Back Bay, Fenway), Chuck Turner (South End, Roxbury) and Maura Hennigan (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury).

On the panel were members of the Women’s Commission, the Emergency Shelter Commission, the Boston Public Health Commission and the Boston Police Department.

All of the councilors present addressed the problem of domestic violence in Boston and commended the panel for their help in preventing and dealing with it.

“We can never rest until domestic violence is no longer a problem in our homes,” Yancey said.

Marie Turley of the Women’s Commission in Boston spoke at the hearing. The Women’s Commission, she said, does not offer any specific service, but coordinates policy issues and develops responses to domestic violence. The Violence Against Women Act has helped various agencies coordinate services and provide a much more intensive response, she said.

Turley also spoke about the public/private partnership in the Boston Police Department that has provided cellular telephones to victims of domestic violence so they can dial directly to 911. The program was so successful that it has now become a national model.

“We are the voice when many people do not have a voice,” she said of the Women’s Commission.

Kelley Cronin works with the Emergency Shelter Commission in Boston. She said domestic violence victims need shelters and also discussed the problems women face fleeing from their abusers.

According to a homeless census in Boston in 2000, over 60 percent of all homeless women have experienced domestic violence at some time in their lives, she said.

One of the problems she addressed was the financial difficulty many women in shelters face. Many domestic violence shelters have rules that the women cannot work, because their batterer may confront them at work, or follow them back to the shelter.

Sgt. Det. Margot Hill, the head of the Domestic Violence Unit of the Boston Police Department, talked about how the unit has changed training for its call takers.

Now, when someone calls 911 with a charge of domestic violence, they are categorized as either being in an intimate relationship with the perpetrator or not being in a relationship. While crimes of domestic violence were formerly labeled only as, “violating a restraining order” or “family trouble,” there are now 17 variations of abuse violations.