Family violence reports in S.F. increase sharply
Reports of domestic violence in San Francisco rose sharply from mid-2010 to mid-2011 — including a remarkable 47 percent increase in phone calls to domestic violence crisis lines, according to a draft report on family violence prepared by the city and obtained by The Chronicle.
Those same hotline calls spiked further in the first quarter of 2012 from the last quarter of 2011, just as Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi’s arrest for domestic violence made the news. Coincidence or not, that uptick disproved the oft-made claim by Mirkarimi’s supporters and some advocates for domestic violence victims that the intense media scrutiny on the sheriff’s case would scare abused women into staying quiet.
Advocates and city officials alike don’t know whether the rise in domestic violence reports can be attributed to more public awareness about the importance of reporting abuse, or whether in-
cidences of family violence are actually on the rise.
At a recent press conference to announce a federal domestic violence grant for the city, Mayor Ed Lee called the statistics “sobering data.” District Attorney George Gascón agreed, but said the big question is why the figures are skyrocketing.
“We don’t know if the level of awareness has increased or if there’s another reason,” Gascón said. “We want to get to the bottom of this.”
The city’s Department on the Status of Women compiles an annual report using statistics gathered from several city agencies and nonprofits that work on domestic violence issues.
The draft of the 2011 Comprehensive Report on Family Violence in San Francisco, expected to be finalized later this month, compares data from the 2009-10 fiscal year to the 2010-11 fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2011.
According to the report, the statistics show “the continued prevalence of family violence in San Francisco across all socioeconomic categories as well as ethnicity and age.” This is the third such report, and while domestic violence reports have risen each year, this appears to be the largest overall rise.
The draft shows reports of child abuse held steady, with 6,025 children referred to Child Protective Services, a 1 percent increase from the previous year. Adult Protective Services received 5,839 cases of elder abuse, also a 1 percent increase.
Reporting on the rise
But reports of domestic violence rose dramatically. The district attorney received 10 percent more cases. Adult Probation supervised 17 percent more convicted batterers. Victims used 29 percent more “bed nights” at domestic violence shelters. And Child Support Services handled 202 percent more cases in which the parent seeking child support reported domestic violence.
“It’s kind of impossible for us to tell if there’s more domestic violence or not,” said Emily Murase, director of the Department on the Status of Women. “We can only tell if there’s more reporting, and that’s what we’ve heard from our agencies.”
While not included in the report, more recent statistics compiled by groups that operate domestic violence hotlines show a further spike in calls made shortly after Mirkarimi’s arrest in January following a New Year’s Eve fight with his wife.
Kathy Black is the director of La Casa de las Madres, a domestic violence shelter that also offers a crisis call line. She said that in the last quarter of 2011, the hotline received 1,062 calls. In the first quarter of 2012, it received 1,402 calls.
“I think the additional attention to the issue of domestic violence made a big, big difference,” Black said. “People are paying attention. Someone might look at the story and say, ‘That’s not different from me. That’s the same.’ ’’
Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of false imprisonment in March after admitting he had grabbed and bruised his wife’s arm. Some of his supporters scoffed that the incident didn’t count as domestic violence, but Black said she and other advocates made a point of stressing that domestic violence includes all types of abuse at all levels of severity.
Unexpected happened
“The more we went out and repeated that, the more people thought, ‘Maybe I need to call and ask if what’s happening to me is domestic violence,’ even if they’ve been told that it’s not,” she said.
Murase admitted that was the opposite of what she expected to happen.
“I thought the whole Mirkarimi case was going to create a tremendous chilling effect, but the statistics are showing more people are coming forward,” she said.
Despite the big increase in hotline calls — which are kept confidential and not reported to the police — there was not a similar increase in 911 calls as the Mirkarimi case unfolded in public.
A public records request by The Chronicle to the Department of Emergency Management found that there were 674 domestic violence-related 911 calls in December 2011 and 688 calls in January 2012. There were 570 calls in February.
According to the report from the Department on the Status of Women, the biggest rise in domestic violence-related reports came from the Department of Child Support Services, which handled 1,721 cases that included a report of domestic violence, a 202 percent increase from the previous year. The department handles a total of 14,500 cases at any given time.
Karen Roye, director of the department, said the still-struggling economy has meant many fathers who previously were able to pay child support now can’t because they’ve maxed out their unemployment benefits.
“Their frustrations are directed at mothers,” Roye said. Mothers are reporting physical abuse in some cases, but they report threats, coercion and alienation of affection toward children with greater frequency, she said.
Curbing the problem
The department is working to curb the problem by developing a case management system to help the father find a job, but also makes it clear that any violence will immediately be reported to the district attorney’s office. Roye said that in the 1,721 cases involving domestic violence, 73 percent of the men are now paying child support and no reports of further violence have been made by their children’s mother.
“We quiz mothers constantly — every week — and no one is reporting any further acts that constitute family violence,” Roye said. “That to me is the most important thing.”
The Adult Probation Department saw a 17 percent rise in those on probation for domestic violence. Wendy Still, chief of the department, said she has a dozen people working in a special domestic violence unit and that they have smaller caseloads than other probation officers. This allows for more monitoring, including helping probationers find employment, work on anger management or curb alcohol addiction. Probation officers also keep in close touch with victims.
Still said she hopes victims are reporting abuse in higher numbers in part because of the city’s efforts over the past 12 years to improve the way it handles domestic violence cases.
The efforts came after the notorious murder of Claire Joyce Tempongko by her former boyfriend. Tempongko called 911 to report the ex-boyfriend’s violent behavior numerous times, cooperated with police and obtained protective orders.
“I’d like to think that with all of the focus on domestic violence San Francisco has done over the past several years, that’s a contributing factor,” Still said. “I haven’t seen anything to tell me that more violence is happening, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not.
“That’s the thing about domestic violence,” she said — it happens behind closed doors. “There’s simply no way to know.”