Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape, and Domestic Violence Quarterly Newsletter

The Director’s Desk

Laura Robertson

We have received our first quarterly reports from our Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention grants, and many good things are happening across the state with our partners in prevention. I am excited to be able to highlight a few of them.

100 Families, through the funded case manager position, are working toward reducing the number of children that come into foster care by helping identify and coordinate services for families in crisis. After meeting with the Sebastian County juvenile judges, they are also starting to take referrals from juvenile court officers to assist families with finding services they need to defer any possible DCFS involvement.

Wade Knox Children’s Advocacy Center was able to educate over 2700 students and over 140 teachers, coaches, counselors, and school administrators on the 5 Safety Rules from the Child Safety Matters and Teen Safety Matters curriculum. The Monique Burr Foundation created this curriculum which the CAC purchased with the grant and is using to teach students and those that work with them how to identify and address unsafe situations like bullying, cyberbullying, and child abuse.

We are happy to share information on the extraordinary work being done in our communities through all of ACCARDV’s partners in prevention.

The Child Welfare Division

Do you know about the child welfare training options available to you at no cost through the Commission? The most frequently requested topic is mandated reporting, we have multiple options available. ACCARDV provides access to two online options: one for licensed educators and another for anyone else interested in online training. Through a collaboration with PBS, the Commission consulted on training modules available on the Arkansas IDEAS (Internet Developed Education for Arkansas Schools) for licensed educators, and is the most efficient way for educators to receive the required professional development hours on child maltreatment.

Another online option is self-paced training available at www.ar.mandatedreporter.org. This option is often utilized by agencies and programs that want staff or volunteers to receive training, as well as post-secondary educational programs that utilize it in curricula. The participant creates an account and completes the training, which can be done over multiple log-ins. A completion certificate may be printed, emailed, or accessed later to provide documentation of completion to their employer.

ACCARDV MISSION STATEMENT
To enhance the investigation, prosecution, treatment, support, and prevention of cases of child abuse, rape, and domestic violence. We hope that our services will help you educate and protect those whose lives are affected by these destructive realities, and replace confusion with clarity of purpose. The Commission’s purpose and membership were further defined in Act 1336, passed by the State Legislature in 1995. This comprehensive group is made up of representatives from various agencies, professions or groups, and service providers including law enforcement, medicine, and mental health.

Sexual Assault Prevention Division

We’ve been relatively busy in the past few weeks! In mid-June, we hosted a training on LGBTQ+ Inclusivity for our RPE sub-grantees and ACASA. Lorraine Stigar did an incredible job with the training, and they received high praise from the attendees. At the end of June, we held the 2022 Sexual Assault Hospital Protocol Conference, which covered various topics, including sexual assault exams, advocacy, neurobiology of trauma, laws about sexual assault, and health equity as it relates to several marginalized groups. If anyone would like a link to the conference recording or the presentations, please contact Sam Siegel at sesiegel@uams.edu. We have also begun printing and distributing our “Am I in Love or Am I in Trouble?” brochures, which have been translated into Spanish by some of the fine folks at Ozark Rape Crisis Center! Over the next few months, we’re working with the Arkansas Department of Health to host more training opportunities for our funded programs.

We’re looking forward to the next meeting of the Committee on Rape and Sexual Assault Prevention on August 24 at 1:30 pm.

Among female victims of rape, 51.1% reported an intimate partner as the perpetrator, while 40.8% reported the perpetrator was an acquaintance. Among male victims, 52.4% reported being raped by an acquaintance, while 15.2% reported the perpetrator was a stranger.

National Sexual Violence Resource Center

Domestic Violence Division

Terri Baker presented at our DV Committee meeting on 7/19. Below is a synopsis of her presentation.
The guest presenter was Terri Baker, with the Faulkner County STOP DV (Special Team on Preventing Domestic Violence) specialty court. STOP DV is a non-profit that was started in 2019 to address the gaps in the system regarding domestic violence cases in the court system. Ms. Baker is the Court Liaison for the program and the Executive Director.

Five employees, including a child advocate and an attorney, handle only the Orders of Protection for the victims. The goal of STOP DV is not to solve the problem of domestic violence but to stop it. They staff and review cases and follow the offenders through their program to ensure their cases do not get overlooked or fall through the cracks.

STOP DV has been twenty years in the making and was the idea of a prosecutor and a judge that saw a need in Faulkner County. They saw many repeat offenders and wondered what they could do to increase the safety of survivors. They had a docket agreement between the district court judge and the circuit court judge to hear all cases related to domestic violence. They wanted to ensure that their agreement to work together would outlast them and not depend on who was on the bench, so STOP DV was born. It is funded through DFA and VOCA funds.

The staff attorney is only allowed to handle the Orders of Protection for the victim and cannot represent the victim on any other legal matters. They are hoping to change that if funding allows it in the future. They also make sure victims know their rights and all relevant court dates. STOP DV makes sure the offender is held accountable. A compliance piece is tied to criminal charges for the offender. Similar to probation, it also has a diversion program that allows the offender to be diverted from jail time if they work the program through DV court.

Usual standards do not measure the success rate. It is common for victims to return to their abusers, but the program considers it a success if the victims return to them for help, even if they continue to return to their abusers. The program is not trying to fix offenders but to provide a safe place for victims to receive referrals and help when they are ready. They can secure attorneys who will provide pro bono services for the victims. Because of the repeat offenders and victims, the program does track new versus returning clients.

Their goal in their first year was to reach fifty (50) clients. They served 90 in the first month. Since opening in 2019, they have served almost 3000 clients.

They are the only DV specialty court in Arkansas. About 25% of the judicial districts are progressing with their DV cases and moving toward a specialty court to handle them. The Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence has been very supportive of the program. Ms. Baker said that the first step is getting a judge on board with the program, which helps immensely if the prosecutor is on board.

1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. For trans or gender non-conforming folks, this number jumps to 54% (National Center for Transgender Equality)

1 in 3 adolescent girls in the US are victims of physical, emotional, or verbal abuse from a dating partner.

It takes an average of 7 attempts for a survivor to leave their abuser and stay separated for good. Leaving is the most dangerous time in an abusive relationship.

Each day in the US, three women are murdered by a current or former intimate partner (Bureau of Justice Statistics).

An intimate partner kills 1 in 5 homicide victims. Over half of female homicide victims in the US are killed by a current or former male intimate partner (CDC).

https://www.responding.org/dv-facts-stats/

Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape, and Domestic Violence Quarterly Newsletter

The Director’s Desk

Laura Robertson

Spring is finally in the air…along with pollen…but the days are getting longer, the flowers are blooming, and new beginnings are all around us! At ACCARDV, we are excited about some new beginnings too. In February, we were able to fund nine new programs focused on primary and secondary child abuse prevention. These new programs involve partners across all three of our areas of prevention focus; child abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence. Each program is unique and will provide education or services that will aid in preventing child abuse in populations most at risk. As April begins and awareness is raised in our communities through Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month, we look forward to telling you a little about each of these new programs and their impact on Arkansas.

I have also enjoyed beginning visits to our Domestic Violence Shelters around the state with our Domestic Violence Coordinator, Sara Rudolph-Pollard. We have learned so much and have been so impressed with the services provided to the communities served in Fort Smith, Blytheville, West Memphis, Texarkana, and Little Rock. The part that impressed me most at every shelter was the tremendous support each of these agencies has from their cities and counties. That support says so much about the incredible work they do and the necessary services they provide to those experiencing domestic violence.

We look forward to continuing our visits around Arkansas in the coming months and meeting more of ACCARDV’s partners on the front lines of Domestic Violence prevention and survivor support.

The Child Welfare Ombudsman Division

I cannot believe that it has been fifteen months since the office of the Child Welfare Ombudsman opened. It has been full of meetings and partnering with stakeholders throughout the Child Welfare system, addressing issues within the system, and helping families and children receive the help and services they need while attempting to progress through an often confusing and overwhelming system.

One group I would like to highlight is our dependency-neglect attorney ad litems. These are attorneys that the court assigns to the children involved in a dependency-neglect case to represent the child’s best interest. Without a doubt, they have made my job much easier and more bearable on many days. Across the state, they take their jobs and their clients’ best interests very seriously. They genuinely care about the children they represent. Their care and concern show in their professionalism, legal expertise, and relentless pursuit of services for their clients and families, especially to prevent further abuse and strengthen the child’s family. They fight daily to make sure their clients whose parents’ rights are terminated are not lost to a system that can easily turn them into another statistic. These foster children are our most vulnerable, and our attorney ad litems represent them and their needs very well. Stasia McDonald, the Dependency-Neglect Attorney ad Litem Program Director for Arkansas, has done a fantastic job in the selection process across the state for attorney ad litems. The training and support her office provides the attorneys allow them to maintain consistent excellence in representing their clients that are often not seen in the legal profession.

ACCARDV Mission Statement
To enhance the investigation, prosecution, treatment, support and prevention on cases of child abuse, rape, and domestic violence. We hope that our services will help you educate and protect those whose lives are affected by these destructive realities, and replace confusion with clarity of purpose. The Commission’s purpose and membership were further defined in Act 1336, passed by the State Legislature in 1995. This comprehensive group is made up of representatives from various agencies, professions or groups, and service providers including law enforcement, medicine, and mental health.

Sexual Assault Prevention Division

As April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, I’m reminded that rape and sexual assault are unfortunately common in the United States and Arkansas. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) reports that 81% of women and 43% of men reported sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. In 2018, there were 2,950 rape and sexual assault reports across Arkansas. In 2019, the number of rape and sexual assault reports increased to 3,035. It is important to note that these statistics likely underestimate the actual number of rapes and sexual assaults. The NSVRC reports that 63% of sexual assaults go unreported. The Commission on Child Abuse, Rape, and Domestic Violence work with community partners to prevent rape and sexual assault and improve the quality of care for victims through educational programming and conferences.

Through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Rape education grant, we fund five sexual assault programs around the state. One of these partners works tirelessly to implement prevention programs for people with disabilities, who have a significantly higher victimization rate of rape and sexual assault. The programs implement evidence-informed rape and sexual assault prevention programming, which teaches secondary students how to recognize healthy and unhealthy relationships, the harms of gender stereotypes, and the importance of consent.

This year, the Commission is hosting a conference on hospital response to sexual assault. The goals of this conference are to reinforce existing treatment protocols for healthcare providers around the state, provide more information about the chain of custody of evidence gathered from rape exams, and educate providers about issues in health equity faced by various marginalized groups.

Finally, we are working with the Arkansas Department of Health to include the Sexual Violence question module for the 2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS); this will provide data to understand better the state’s actual rate of rape and sexual assault. The BRFSS collects vital demographic data and identifies the populations of greatest need, thus helping to direct our efforts most effectively.

Among female victims of rape, 51.1% reported an intimate partner as the perpetrator, while 40.8% reported the perpetrator was an acquaintance. Among male victims, 52.4% reported being raped by an acquaintance, while 15.2% reported the perpetrator was a stranger.

National Sexual Violence Resource Center

Child Welfare Division

As Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month always brings to mind the one question that has been asked of me at almost every child maltreatment education session over the last two decades. No matter if the audience is a dozen Head Start employees in a colorful classroom in rural Arkansas, a bustling auditorium of hundreds of educators, or a seminar room filled with uniformed law enforcement- the question most often asked is some version of “How do we keep this from happening?”

How do we prevent child abuse and neglect? According to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), promoting protective factors is the answer. As defined by ACF, protective factors are conditions or attributes in individuals, families, communities, or the larger society that mitigate or eliminate risk in families and communities, thereby increasing the health and well-being of children and families. Utilizing protective factors assists parents in finding resources, supports, and coping strategies to help them in parenting effectively, even when under stress.

UAMS recently provided the Commission with the opportunity to develop funding parameters for a grant to prevent child abuse and neglect. Utilizing the protective factors framework adapted from the Strengthening Families Framework developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, ACCARDV asked non-profits, state agencies, law enforcement, juvenile courts, and other programs to submit proposals to increase protective factors in local communities. The funded programs described in their applications how the development or expansion of proposed projects would contribute to the increase in protective factors in the communities served. The Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault, two domestic violence shelters, four child advocacy centers, Restore Hope, and the Center for Arkansas Legal Services are recipients of the ACCARDV Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Grants. For the first time in Commission history, programs in all three disciplines were funded by the same grant, encouraging collaboration and integration among professionals and programs working in child maltreatment, sexual assault, and domestic violence. The Commission was grateful for applications for the initial round of funding, and we look forward to working with these programs and shining a light on the work they do in their communities in the coming year.

Protective Factors Framework:
Nurturing and attachment
Knowledge of parenting and child and youth development
Parental resilience
Social connections
Concrete support for parents
Social and emotional competence of children

Domestic Violence Division

As Laura mentioned above, it is a great pleasure visiting the shelters. I enjoy seeing old faces and meeting new ones. As I listen to all that the shelter’s staff can accomplish, I am amazed that they do so much with so little. One constant that I hear over and over is “COMMUNITY.” The communities are stepping up and providing everything from shampoo to diapers to furniture and stoves. People in the communities also give their time to build playsets, paint and even take care of lawns. Check with the shelter in your community and offer your time and talents.

On another note, I provide domestic violence/Healthy Relationship training to the residents of Hoover Treatment Center. At Hoover, we always seem to have some discussion on, Why doesn’t she just leave? When I started in the DV field over 25 years ago, I asked the same question. The reasons victims stay are varied and many.

Why Do The Abused Stay?

-The victims lack knowledge or access to safety and support.

-The belief that two-parent households are better for children, despite the abuse.

-Unsupportive friends and family

-The victim feels that the relationship is a mix of good times, love, hope, manipulation, intimidation, and fear.

Fear of the batterer’s violence:

A victim’s chances of being killed or seriously injured increase by 75% when leaving a violent relationship.

Immobilization by psychological and/or physical trauma:

Victims are often too injured or too frightened to tell or escape.

Connection to the perpetrator through children:

Some stay in the relationship because of their beliefs and for their children’s need for the other parent or because of the abuser’s previous threats to flee with the children, have the children taken away, or harm them.

Belief in cultural, family, or religious values:

Support systems are not always supportive of a victim leaving the relationship or seeking help. Family or religious systems can pressure a victim into staying in a violent relationship.

Continual hope and belief that the violence will end or he will change:

Victims believe promises made by the batterer and want the violence to end, but not necessarily the relationship. Victims believe that they have the power to change the relationship for the better.

Belief batterer will commit suicide or engage in self-destructive behavior:

Many batterers threaten suicide or use any means necessary to place guilt and worry on the victim.

Lack of funds:

It costs approximately $1500 to set up a household in the first month without housing assistance. Public housing lists are long, sometimes over six months, and many do not qualify.

Lack of real alternatives for employment and financial assistance:
Domestic violence is the number one cause of loss of employment in the United States.

Source: https://www.domesticpeace.com/why-abused-stay

1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. For trans or gender non-conforming folks, this number jumps to 54% (National Center for Transgender Equality)
1 in 3 adolescent girls in the US are victims of physical, emotional, or verbal abuse from a dating partner.
It takes an average of 7 attempts for a survivor to leave their abuser and stay separated for good. Leaving is the most dangerous time in an abusive relationship.
Each day in the US, three women are murdered by a current or former intimate partner (Bureau of Justice Statistics).
An intimate partner kills 1 in 5 homicide victims. Over half of female homicide victims in the US are killed by a current or former male intimate partner (CDC).

https://www.responding.org/dv-facts-stats/