National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative Essay ⋆ Criminal Justice Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative (NDVFRI) is headquartered at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The NDVFRI was created with a grant from the Office on Violence Against Women in the U.S. Department of Justice. It provides technical assistance, evaluative reviews, and serves as a clearinghouse for information and other resources for states that conduct domestic violence fatality reviews.

Domestic violence fatality review refers to the deliberative process of identification and review of deaths, both homicide and suicide, caused by domestic violence. Fatality reviews examine the systemic interventions into known incidents of domestic violence occurring in the family of the deceased prior to the death for consideration of altered systemic response to avert future domestic violence deaths or for development of recommendations for coordinated community prevention and intervention initiatives to eradicate domestic violence. This deliberative process can be formal or informal and can provide basic demographic information or very detailed data on victims and perpetrators. The goals of domestic violence fatality review include prevention of future deaths and injuries due to domestic violence by examining deaths that have occurred through a lens of preventive accountability. Error recognition, responsibility, honesty, and systemic improvement should be the focus rather than denial, blame, and personalizing the review. By bringing diverse individuals to the table, fatality review teams are able to examine these deaths in much greater detail than one would otherwise expect.

A fatality review can offer more insight into the cause of death, leading to a solution to eliminate or decrease homicides, such as domestic violence deaths, elder abuse, and child abuse. The team, inclusive rather than exclusive, may comprise an attorney general or prosecutor, public defenders, media, researchers, child protective services, mental health workers, medical examiners, victim advocates, faith based personnel, social workers, and any other interested community members.

A fatality review team, regardless of the focus, will examine all or some of the following reports: police department homicide logs; past investigation calls; newspaper reports; crime scene investigations; prior protective orders; civil court data; criminal histories; child protective agency data and prior abuse histories; psychological evaluations; medical examiners’ reports; workplace information; medical histories; shelter data; school data; parole information; statements from neighbors, friends, family, and witnesses; and state statutes on domestic violence.

Fatality review team members will often incorporate what they have learned into their daily jobs, increasing awareness among those they encounter on a day-to-day basis. Multiagency cooperation also allows for a better understanding of the day-to-day case load and frustrations and celebrations each person encounters. The annual reports set forth by fatality review teams garner public attention and hopefully lead to increased reform.

Greater collaboration and understanding can lead to more funding, increased public awareness, and policy changes that reduce domestic violence–related deaths.

In addition to providing technical assistance to state fatality review teams, the NDVFRI also helps identify gaps in the delivery of services to domestic violence victims, perpetrators, and their families and assist agencies and service providers in rectifying these problems. The objectives of the NDVFRI are to prevent domestic violence and increase the safety of domestic violence victims.

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