A list of Kentuckians who have died because of domestic violence, ranging in age from 19 to 73. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

FRANKFORT — Kentucky must examine its gun laws to make sure it’s doing all it can to protect survivors of domestic violence, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday.?

His comments came after he signed a proclamation in the Capitol Rotunda making October 2024 Domestic Violence Awareness Month.?

He joined advocates from ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence) and others to honor 26 lives lost in recent years to intimate partner violence — including Erica Riley, who was fatally shot outside the Hardin County Justice Center in August.

After 2 women die in ‘ambush’ outside Hardin courthouse, what can Kentucky do better?

Beshear said Kentucky needs to provide “real protection” for people leaving abusive situations.?

“We have sadly seen far too much violence after someone takes out (a protective order), and we’ve got to make sure that we are filling all of those holes,” Beshear told reporters. “We’ve got to look at transportation. We’ve got to look at ways to keep people’s current location from reaching their perpetrator, and we’ve got to look at how we navigate the judicial system to where that person doesn’t have to face their perpetrator … every so often in court.”?

Riley was at the courthouse on the morning of Aug. 19 for a hearing on her emergency protective order. Police say the man who she was seeking protection from shot her and her mother, Janet Rylee, in an “ambush” in the courthouse parking lot right before the hearing. They both died.?

“It’s important that we have that system that provides everyone their day in court,” Beshear said, “but at the same time, doesn’t make someone face their abuser face to face, over and over.”?

That could be accomplished virtually, he said, an idea supported by the head of the domestic violence shelter in Elizabethtown, where Riley died. He also said the state “ought to look at” how to uniformly provide court escorts to people headed into hearings for protective orders.?

“We know we had a shooting outside of one of our courthouses where someone should be safe,” Beshear said. “And so whether that’s looking at where the parking lots are, how it’s designed, whether we have other entrances for those involved in these types of cases, or whether an escort in and out would work, we don’t want it to happen again. So the most important thing is we figure out a way to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”?

Beshear also said Kentucky must have a cultural shift in how it views domestic and intimate partner violence.?

“We’ve got far too much toxic masculinity, far too many people speaking in violent terms,” he said. “We should show our families what being a responsible adult is, and that … committing acts of violence doesn’t make you a man, it makes you a monster.”?

Beshear has previously voiced support for a “red flag” law, which would allow temporary restrictions on gun possession by individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Coercive control

The gathering also heard a Kentucky lawmaker call for adding coercive control to Kentucky’s protective order law. Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, said she will sponsor a bill to help survivors access “court assistance earlier in the process.”?

Dietz’s legislation is a key piece of policy advocates who work in violence prevention support.?

Currently, protective orders are available in Kentucky to people who have experienced physical violence or face immediate threat of physical violence. But some survivors face a more nuanced abuse, like loss of financial and medical autonomy, isolation, surveillance and more.?

“Most folks view domestic violence as that battering, that physical assault,” Angela Yannelli, the CEO of ZeroV, previously told the Lantern. “You’ll see the signs, the billboards, with the black eye … that happens. But what we think is happening a lot more, that we’re not able to see in the homes, are these controls.”?

Coercive control is a “huge indicator” of violence, Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky, previously told the Lantern. In adding it to the emergency protective order (EPO) statute, she said, “we could save lives.”??

“Being able to recognize coercive control as a piece of intimate partner violence, or even a lead into intimate partner violence,” Burch said, “would be very important to getting ahead of this issue … not just responding after violence has already occurred.”

Not a ‘private issue’?

Andrea Robinson, president of the ZeroV board of directors, told the gathering that? Kentucky must break the “norm of silence” when it comes to domestic violence.?

“The current social norm of silence is based on the belief that intimate partner violence is a private issue, that it is between a couple, or … that it only affects those individuals in the relationship,” said Robinson. “The norm of silence only serves to hurt, isolate, shame and stigmatize survivors, making it harder for them to flee an abusive partner.”??

Breaking that can include checking on neighbors and loved ones, wearing purple to raise awareness of domestic violence and sharing resources with people who may need them, Robinson said.?

In 2022, about half of Kentucky women — 45.3% — and around 35.5% of men had experienced intimate partner violence — or threat of it — in their lifetimes, the Lantern has reported. ?

In 2023, that number decreased to 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men.?

Across the state in 2024, ZeroV programs provided emergency shelter to 2,788 people, including 1,120 children, and provided 336,145 total services, it says.?

“In Kentucky, we don’t tolerate domestic violence,” Beshear said. “It is every single one of our obligations to say something when we see it, to get over that thought that it’s private.”??

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

BUTLER, Pa. — Former President Donald Trump is recovering Saturday after a shooting at a campaign rally in Butler that left a rally-goer and the gunman dead, authorities said. Two people were critically injured in the incident, according to the U.S. Secret Service.

Shortly after Trump took the stage at about 6 p.m., several loud pops could be heard, and U.S. Secret Service agents whisked him off the stage, blood visible on his face. Trump briefly pumped his fist at the crowd before he left the stage. Video from the incident appeared to show Trump reacting to something hitting his ear.

Saturday’s event was to be Trump’s final campaign rally before he formally accepts the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination at next week’s Republican National Convention.

Trump posted to his verified account on the Truth Social platform at 8:42 p.m. and appeared to confirm he was shot.

“I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured,” Trump wrote. “It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service released a statement to reporters shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday:

“During Former President Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the evening of July 13 at approximately 6:15 p.m., a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue. U.S. Secret Service personnel neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased. U.S. Secret Service quickly responded with protective measures and Former President Trump is safe. One spectator was killed, and two spectators were critically injured. This incident is currently under investigation. and the Secret Service has notified the FBI.”

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said on CNN that he shooter was “outside of the grounds, so to speak. Quite frankly I don’t know how he would have gotten to the location he was … we’re gonna have to figure out how he got there.”

President Joe Biden condemned the shooting in a brief statement from Delaware. “There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said.

“It’s sick, it’s one of the reasons we have to unite this country,” he added. “We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this, we cannot condone this.” Biden said he had tried to contact Trump, and said that the former president was with his doctors and appeared to be doing well.

LIVE: Sounds of multiple shots heard at Trump rally in Pennsylvania https://t.co/0htWSbaRrZ

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 13, 2024

“FBI personnel are on the scene in Butler County, Pennsylvania and the FBI will continue to work jointly with the U.S. Secret Service as the investigation moves forward,” FBI Pittsburgh Public Affairs Officer Bradford Arick told the Capital-Star in an email.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Bertha Cazy told the Capital-Star in an email “The Pennsylvania State Police has Troopers on scene assisting the Secret Service in various capacities. All other questions should be directed to the U.S. Secret Service, the agency handling the investigation.”

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told reporters Saturday “President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility. More details will follow.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro said on social media he had been briefed on the situation and that Pennsylvania State Police were on the scene working with federal and local partners. “Violence targeted at any political party or political leaders is absolutely unacceptable,” Shapiro wrote. “It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States.”

GOP U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick, who spoke at the rally before Trump, told Fox News there were a number of shots, and Secret Service agents attended to Trump. He said it was hard to tell where the shots came from, but that he heard seven or eight shots.

“And then, sadly, someone behind me, up in the bleachers was definitely wounded, and there was a lot of blood. And, you know, the police came in and helped carry that person out of the stands so they could get the care they needed. I’m not sure if others were injured or not, if at all, ” he said, describing the scene as “very chaotic.”

McCormick said he was sitting in the front row to Trump’s right as he was facing the crowd. “I couldn’t tell whether it was one gun or two, but there were seven or eight shots, just one right, one right after another.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa) said he was monitoring the situation at the rally and had reached out to State Police to offer support. “Political violence is never acceptable and I am hoping former President Trump and all attendees are safe. Everyone in Butler should listen to law enforcement,” Casey posted to social media.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-16th District), who also spoke at the rally, called the shooting an “attack from the left,” in a Facebook post, adding that he and his family were safe “and we are praying for Mr. Trump and everyone involved.”

Ian Karbal of the Capital-Star staff contributed.

This is a breaking story that will be updated. Our earlier coverage continues below.

Speakers at the event ahead of Trump included representatives from the oil and gas industries, the mayor of Slippery Rock, and Sean Parnell, a former GOP candidate for U.S. Senate who received Trump’s endorsement, but suspended his campaign in 2021 after his then-wife testified he had abused her and their children.

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R-9th District) who took the stage to AC-DC’s “Thunderstruck” told the audience Trump “will deliver on his promises. Our border will be secure. He will end the gas backwards energy policy of the Biden administration and in Pennsylvania, natural gas will flow again. We will make manufacturing great again by being the most competitive place in the world to build things.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-16th District), whose district includes Butler, pointed to Biden’s debate performance as evidence that “the media has been lying to us” about the president’s health.

“Have you ever heard the term ‘playing through the whistle?’ Playing it through the whistle means you keep on playing, you keep on doing what you have to do to win,” Kelly said. “You keep on going to make sure you don’t lose. But I want to give you a different version: We’d better play it through the echo of the whistle. Playing through the whistle isn’t enough, not with this crew that we’re fighting against right now.”

GOP U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick, who is challenging three-term incumbent Bob Casey, reiterated his claims that Casey votes with Biden 98% of the time.? “I like to say Punxsutawney, because it reminds me of Punxsutawney, Bob, Bob Casey, that is who only comes out of his hole once every six years,” McCormick said.

“The lack of leadership, lack of moral clarity, an economy where 60% of Pennsylvanians are living paycheck to paycheck, and prices are up by more than 20% and is the result of the terrible, flawed policies of Joe Biden, the spending Bob Casey supported it every step of the way,” he added.

McCormick repeated another familiar highlight of his campaign stump speech, pointing to the fentanyl crisis. “For those of you who are Vietnam vets, we lost 53,000 veterans in eight years of war. We had two Vietnams last year in the United States from fentanyl,” he said. “This is a war against us.”

McCormick also referenced Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained in Russia in 2023, and Oakmont resident Marc Fogel, a teacher detained in Russia in 2021. Fogel’s mother said earlier in the week she was going to seek Trump’s help in securing her son’s release.

“We need leadership that’s going to stand up and bring Pennsylvanian Mark Fogel home to Pennsylvania, home to America. That’s what leaders do. That’s what a commander in chief does,” McCormick said.

The Democratic National Committee rolled out a billboard in Butler to greet Trump on Saturday that jabs at the former president’s economic record. The billboard, with the words “Donald Trump was a disaster for Pennsylvania,” will be located at the end of the Pullman Viaduct, about 10 minutes away from the Butler Farm Show.

“Pennsylvania voters remember Trump’s failures and know exactly how much is at stake in November,” DNC spokesperson Addy Toevs said in a statement. “That’s why they’ll reject Trump and his Project 2025 agenda, and once again send President Biden to the White House.”

As Trump rallied in western Pennsylvania on Saturday, first lady Jill Biden was also in the region to attend an Italian Sons and Daughters of America dinner in Pittsburgh.

And in the eastern half of the commonwealth, Vice President Kamala Harris was in Philadelphia to deliver the keynote address at the Asian Pacific Islander American Vote Presidential Town Hall on Saturday.

Saturday’s appearance in the Keystone State is Trump’s fifth visit to Pennsylvania this year, but his first in the western half of the commonwealth. Trump has made two 2024 appearances in Philadelphia, once for a rally on Temple University’s campus, and to deliver brief remarks at Sneaker Con in February. He also held a rally in the Lehigh Valley in April, and delivered a keynote address to a National Rifle Association gathering in Harrisburg in February.

“Donald Trump can take his twice-impeached, 34-time convicted, vowed-to-be-dictator-on-day-one, consumed by revenge, serial liar, Project 2025 self out of Pennsylvania and go back to his Mar-a-Lago golf course,” Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis said in a statement Saturday. “After he destroyed our economy, screwed over workers, and called for the ‘termination’ of the Constitution written in our state, Pennsylvania voters will send him packing in November. Again.”

Butler is a reliably red county where Trump won by double digits in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. Trump’s rally in Butler a few days before the 2020 presidential election was well-attended, although there were transportation issues for those attempting to exit the rally.

President Joe Biden has also been no stranger to Pennsylvania, making ten appearances the state so far, mostly in the southeast. Biden campaigned through the state last Sunday, appearing at a traditionally Black church in Northwest Philadelphia, and speaking to supporters in Philadelphia and Harrisburg.

Biden returns to battleground Pennsylvania for campaign events in Philadelphia and Harrisburg

As of Saturday morning, 18 Democrats serving in the U.S. House and one serving in the U.S. Senate have called on Biden to not seek the Democratic Party nomination, following his poor debate performance in late June, amid questions about whether he can beat Trump in November.

Biden has repeatedly said he does not plan to drop out of the race, reiterating his position at a rally in Michigan on Friday, where he was greeted with chants of “don’t you quit” and “we got your back,” from a crowd at Renaissance High School in Detroit.

“You made me the nominee, no one else — not the press, not the pundits, not the insiders, not donors,” Biden told the audience. “You, the voters. You decided. No one else. And I’m not going anywhere.”

Support for the president

Pennsylvania Democrats have largely remained behind the Scranton native. Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has been mentioned as a potential candidate for president or vice president should Biden step aside, has remained committed to Biden’s 2024 bid. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has also emerged as a key campaign surrogate for Biden.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who is seeking a fourth term in office, has also stood by Biden’s side, while other Democrats in battleground states have distanced themselves from him. On Friday, speaking to reporters after an event in Darlington Township, Beaver County, Casey reiterated his support for Biden, saying it had not changed.

“I think we’re going to have a unified party between now and November,” Casey said. “This is a difficult period, but we’ll get there. But you know where I stand.”

McCormick has blasted the three-term senator for continuing to support Biden. His campaign put up billboards in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton this week reading “Same old tired ideas,” with photos of the two Democrats.

In response to a question about whether he was worried about Biden being a potential drag on his Senate race and other down ballot races on Friday, Casey answered with a firm “no.”

Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-17th District) who also spoke at the event in Darlington with Casey, urged people to “Google Project 2025, and what Donald Trump expects to do if he becomes president, again. It is dangerous,” he said. “It is threatening to our freedom and the fundamentals of our rule of law in this country. “

Deluzio added that he thinks Democrats will unite to “make sure Trump is never the president of this country again.”

However, U.S. Rep. Susan Wild (D-7th District) has expressed concern about Biden’s “electability” and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-12th District) has said Biden needs to show “that he’s up for the task” of staying in the race.

Lee, who was scheduled to attend a Pittsburgh rally for Biden with Allegheny County Democrats on Friday but did not appear due to a schedule conflict, did not answer questions about Biden at an event in Pittsburgh with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Lee said she would not answer a political question while at an event where she was appearing in her capacity as a member of Congress, TribLive reported.

Pennsylvania GOP unites behind Trump

Trump, who was convicted of 34 felony counts in a New York courtroom in May, largely has united the Pennsylvania Republican Party behind his candidacy. With the exception of U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1st District), every GOP member of the state’s congressional delegation has endorsed Trump;? Fitzpatrick has not announced who he will be voting for in November. The only Republican in Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to represent a district Biden won in 2020, Fitzpatrick said he wrote in Mike Pence for president in 2016, but voted for Trump in 2020.

Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes are critical to the candidates’ chances of winning in November. Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon sent a memo to supporters listing Pennsylvania as one of the three “blue wall” states that provide the campaign the “clearest pathway” to reelection.

Recent polling indicates that Biden and Trump are engaged in a close race for Pennsylvania, although Trump holds a narrow edge. The Cook Political Report ranks Pennsylvania in the toss-up category. It has the largest number of electoral votes of any battleground state.

Updated: This story was updated at 6:15 p.m. with details from the event.?

This story is republished from the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a sister publication of the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

President Joe Biden gives brief remarks from Rehoboth Beach, Del., on Saturday, July 13, 2024, on the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania.??(Screenshot from White House livestream)

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden denounced political violence during brief remarks Saturday night after a shooting abruptly ended a campaign rally that Donald Trump was holding in Pennsylvania and injured the former president.

Biden declined to say if the incident, which is under investigation by the Secret Service, was an assassination attempt.

“I have an opinion, but I don’t have any facts,” Biden said, speaking from the Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, police department, near his vacation home there. “So I want to make sure we have all the facts before I make some comment.”

Biden said he hadn’t spoken to Trump yet, but that he hoped to talk with him by phone soon.

“I have tried to get a hold of Donald. He’s with his doctors. Apparently he’s doing well,” Biden said. “I plan on talking to him shortly. I hope when I get back to the telephone.”

Trump on social media

Trump posted on social media after Biden’s remarks concluded that he wanted to offer “condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured.”

“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country,” Trump wrote. “Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead.”

Trump added that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” Trump wrote. “Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”

‘We cannot condone this’

Biden said during his public comments the type of violence that took place during the rally was unacceptable and should never happen.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick,” Biden said. “It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

Trump, he said, should have been able to have the rally without any violence.

“The idea that there’s political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of, it’s just not appropriate,” Biden said. “Everybody must condemn it.”

Vice President Kamala Harris also issued a statement saying she had been briefed on the incident.

“Doug and I are relieved that he is not seriously injured. We are praying for him, his family, and all those who have been injured and impacted by this senseless shooting,” she said of Trump.

“Violence such as this has no place in our nation,” Harris wrote. “We must all condemn this abhorrent act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to more violence.”

An FBI Evidence Response Team investigator walks behind a crime scene. The FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report, which was released in early June, suggests that violent crime dropped by 15% compared with the first quarter of 2023. (Ann Arbor Miller/Associated Press)

Violent crime in the United States dropped significantly in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the same period last year, according to the FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report released last month.

The FBI’s data, collected from nearly 12,000 law enforcement agencies representing about 77% of the country’s population, suggests violent crime dropped by 15% compared with the first quarter of 2023.

The data, which covers reported crimes from January to March, shows a 26.4% decrease in murders, a 25.7% decrease in rapes, a 17.8% decrease in robberies, and a 12.5% decrease in aggravated assaults. Reported property crime also fell by 15.1%.

Nevertheless, the widespread public perception that crime is rising — a perception reinforced by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and many other GOP candidates — could figure prominently in November’s election. And state legislative and gubernatorial candidates from both parties likely also will cite crime statistics on the stump.

In a Gallup poll conducted late last year, 63% of respondents described the crime problem in the U.S. as either extremely or very serious. This is the highest percentage since Gallup began asking the question in 2000.

In May, Trump wrongly called FBI data showing a decline in crime “fake numbers.” This month, he erroneously claimed that the FBI’s crime statistics exclude 30% of cities, including the “biggest and most violent.”

He could have been referring to the fact some departments couldn’t report data in 2021 because the FBI switched data reporting systems, but experts say the overall numbers remain valid.

President Joe Biden has also used crime statistics for political gain. In a May campaign email, Biden said that Trump “oversaw the largest increase in murder in U.S. history.” While this is not entirely inaccurate — the country did see the largest one-year increase in murders in 2020 — it omits context regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the social upheaval following George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer.

Beshear vetoes sweeping anti-crime bill along with parts of state budget

The latest FBI crime statistics align with other early data from 2024. In May, the Major Cities Chiefs Association released first-quarter data from a survey of 68 major metropolitan police departments showing a 17% drop in murders compared with the same period last year.

The FBI’s latest data is preliminary and unaudited, which means it will change as more law enforcement agencies refine their numbers throughout the year. National crime data is incomplete, as it only includes crimes reported to police, and not every law enforcement agency participates in the FBI’s crime reporting program.

Despite the data’s limitations, some criminologists and crime data experts say the data is reliable. Some say the FBI’s data likely overstates the decreases, suggesting the drop in violent crime is likely less dramatic but still trending downward.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as to the accuracy of the data, so it matches but probably overstates what the trends are,” Jeff Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics, a data consulting firm that specializes in crime data, told Stateline in an interview. “In theory, everything will get more accurate as the year goes on.”

Although national data suggests an overall major decrease in crime across the country, some criminologists caution that that isn’t necessarily the case in individual cities and neighborhoods.

“It looks good for the nation as a whole, but even with these great reductions, there are cities in the United States that have likely experienced increases that bucked the trend,” Charis Kubrin, a criminology, law and society professor at the University of California, Irvine, told Stateline.

The average American’s understanding of crime and crime statistics is heavily skewed by media coverage that focuses largely on when crimes are committed and by misleading political rhetoric, according to criminologists and crime data experts.

Instead of relying on statistics, which can feel impersonal, people tend to cling to anecdotes that resonate more emotionally. Politicians take advantage of this, Dan Gardner, author of the book “Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear,” told Stateline.

“If you are a political operative, capitalizing on fear of crime is incredibly easy to do,” Gardner said.

Telling a tragic story and framing it in a way so that voters feel they or their families could become victims of similar crimes unless they vote for a specific politician is a common, highly effective tactic, he added.

This use of fear as a motivator can drive people to the polls, Gardner said, but it also distorts public perception of crime.

“It’s a lousy way to understand the reality of personal safety and society, but it’s a very compelling form of marketing,” Gardner said.

The Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, released a report this month urging police and the federal government to provide more timely crime data. The report emphasizes that crime data, especially national data, often lags up to a year, which hampers public understanding of crime trends and limits officials’ ability to make informed policy decisions to proactively address public safety issues.

“We need to accelerate improvements in our [crime] data,” John Roman, a senior fellow and the director of the Center on Public Safety and Justice at NORC at the University of Chicago, told Stateline. Roman also is the chair of the Council on Criminal Justice’s Crime Trends Working Group. “The democratization of this data is really critical to more effective policy and programming.”

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and?part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network. ?Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: [email protected]. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

What is known about intimate partner violence in Kentucky isn’t the whole picture; research suggests only around 54% of of domestic violence incidents like rape or assault are reported to police.?(Getty Images)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

Over a seven-month period last year, there were nearly 27,000 alleged cases of child abuse with a domestic violence component in Kentucky, the 2023 Domestic Violence Data Report shows.?

From April 22 to Dec. 31, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and help hotlines received 26,582 “unique reports” of child abuse “in which there were also allegations of domestic violence,” according to the statewide report, released Monday.??

Cortney Downs, chief equity officer for Kentucky Youth Advocates, said this number is “pretty alarming.”

“Those are real people, and … this is a significant part of their life, day in and day out,” Downs told the Lantern. “Parents, the non-offending caregivers, are having to think every day about how to keep their kids safe in a very different way than a lot of other parents. You have older siblings who are having to think about how to keep their younger siblings safe in a very different way than a lot of other people.”???

The report also shows the number of adult Kentuckians who experienced intimate partner violence decreased slightly in 2023 from 2022.?

In 2022, the first of its kind report showed about half of Kentucky women — 45.3% — and around 35.5% of men experienced intimate partner violence — or threat of it — in their lifetimes.

The 2023 report shows that from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, that number decreased to 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men.?

This includes, according to the report, “being fearful or concerned for safety, any post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, injury, need for medical care, housing services, victim advocate services, and/or legal services, missing at least one day of work or school, and/or contacting a crisis hotline.”?

The state began gathering this data in compliance with a 2022 Republican bill that directed agencies to annually gather and publish data on domestic and dating violence and abuse.?

Data in it comes from the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet’s Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center, Kentucky State Police, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Administrative Office of the Courts.

By the numbers?

The report shows that in Kentucky last year:?

• 41,887 electronic JC-3 forms (documenting alleged violence) were filed. This is up from 2022, when there were 38,708 electronic JC-3 forms filed across Kentucky.?
• 7,744 arrests were made for incidents involving domestic or dating violence and abuse. This is down from 2022, when there were 8,867 arrests. The decrease is because the report excluded human trafficking this year, according to the Justice & Public Safety Cabinet, “to help provide the state a better snapshot for progress to be made.”?
• 17,036 emergency protective orders were served by the Kentucky State Police.? This is an increase from 2022, when police served 16,402 emergency protective orders (EPOs), which are short-term restrictions on? the accused’s movements until the issue can go before a judge, which the court system aims to do within two weeks.?
• 15,104 individuals received services from ZeroV’s 15 regional domestic violence programs.
• 23,381 crisis/hotline calls were received through ZeroV’s 15 regional domestic violence programs. This is an increase from the 21,241 crisis calls in 2022.

‘Scary’ to report

What is known about intimate partner violence in Kentucky isn’t the whole picture; research suggests only around 54% of domestic violence incidents like rape or assault are reported to police.?

“The true prevalence and impact of domestic violence goes far beyond the scope of the data captured within this report,” the report says.?

The data that is known “is almost like the tip of the iceberg,” said Downs. “There are probably a lot more people — hundreds, thousands, potentially, of other people — across the state who are experiencing this currently, have experienced intimate partner violence at some point in their lives, and just didn’t say anything.”?

And any amount of interpersonal violence is too much, advocates say.?

Angela Yannelli, the CEO of ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence), said “any level of violence greater than zero is a concern that deserves the attention of our commonwealth.”?

Ending such violence needs a comprehensive approach, she said.?

“We need a strong support system that makes sure everyone can access food, healthcare and housing, which would make it easier for survivors to get away from abusive relationships,” Yannelli said in a statement. “And finally, we need to abolish the cultural norms that allow for and perpetuate (intimate partner violence) to prevent it from happening in the first place.”

Community members — and lawmakers — need to band together to end cycles of violence and the stigma around reporting it, Downs with KYA said.?

“In general, I think it is very hard, it’s very scary, it’s very dangerous to even report at all, to tell anyone about what’s going on,” she said.?

Solutions to ending violence will be different in different areas of the state, Downs said. ?“It’s 2024. This isn’t a new or emerging issue, and so reading this report, to me, felt like an urgent call for action.”?

Lawmakers should work to find solutions to ending violence, she said, and listen to input from the experts in different regions.

“We all know somebody or multiple people who have gone through it. Non-offending parents and their children really cannot afford to have those in positions of power spending another year being just horrified or shocked by the data and then not following through with action.”?

A recovered 2012 Hyundai Elantra is seen in Berkeley, Calif., after being stolen in early October 2023. Thieves have targeted Hyundai and Kia vehicles that were built without engine immobilizers, a common anti-theft technology that has long been standard on other vehicle models. Now, Hyundai said it will set up “mobile clinics” at five U.S. locations to provide anti-theft software upgrades for vehicles now regularly targeted by thieves using a technique popularized on TikTok and other social platforms. (AP Photo/David Hamilton)

Carjackings and car thefts are up significantly compared with the number of incidents before the pandemic, prompting fear and calls for action in many American cities.

Motor vehicle thefts increased by 29% in 2023 compared with the previous year, while carjackings slightly decreased by 5%?in?nearly 40 American cities,?according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s most recent crime trends report. But between 2019 and 2023, both car thefts and carjackings increased dramatically, by 105% and 93%, respectively, according to the report.

Sweeping GOP bill increasing criminal penalties, outlawing ‘street camping’ clears Kentucky House

As with many other crimes, there is limited FBI data on carjackings and motor vehicle thefts because law enforcement agencies differ in how they collect and submit their data. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics also has not released any updated statistics on carjackings since October 2022, which tracked crimes committed through 2021. That poses a significant challenge for policymakers trying to allocate police resources to the communities that need them most.

?The five cities with the highest year-over-year increases in motor vehicle theft between 2022 and 2023 were Rochester, New York; Baltimore; Buffalo, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Cincinnati. The cities with the highest carjacking rates per 100,000 residents in 2023 were the District of Columbia; Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; Chicago; and Denver.

“We certainly don’t want people flying blind making decisions with respect to public safety,” said Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Miami and the former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Anecdotal evidence on social media can heavily shape public perceptions of safety and crime, Ernesto Lopez, a research specialist at the Council on Criminal Justice, wrote in an email to Stateline.

Josh Rovner, the director of youth justice at The Sentencing Project, agreed that “the scraps of information that we have about youth involvement is very easy to overstate and misunderstand.”

Carjacking data, especially at the national level, is hard to come by. And despite the greater availability of motor vehicle theft data, its reliability varies across different law enforcement levels, with some local departments failing to submit their data to federal agencies and others not collecting the information at all.

“We need more local law enforcement agencies to produce that data — not just internally for their own community to report out to the community, but also for policy action,” Piquero said.

What the data says

Since reaching its peak in the 1990s, overall crime in the United States has declined. In 2022, the most recent year with available data, there were 23.5 violent crimes for every 1,000 Americans aged 12 and older, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey.

The violent victimization rate increased by 42% in 2022 compared with 2021, but the past three decades have seen an overall decline.

Carjackings and motor vehicle thefts, however, are up compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It’s hard to say exactly what’s behind the surge, but some crime experts suggest that the economic turmoil during the pandemic, coupled with the relative ease of stealing cars or parts for financial gain, increased the attractiveness of car-related crime.

Carjackings are less common than auto thefts but more violent. In a carjacking the perpetrator directly confronts the vehicle’s owner, while auto theft typically occurs when a car is unoccupied. Motor vehicle theft includes stealing entire cars or specific parts such as tires, rims or catalytic converters. The difference between the two offenses is whether force is used to steal a car.

In the District of Columbia, the city’s police department recorded 958 carjackings last year but only made 173 arrests, according to the Metropolitan Police Department’s carjacking dashboard. Sixty-two percent of those suspects were under the age of 18.

Juveniles might be overrepresented in D.C.’s arrest numbers because they are easier to apprehend, or because they tend to commit crimes together, said Rovner, of The Sentencing Project.

Nationwide, the number of?adults and juveniles?arrested for motor vehicle theft?has consistently declined since the 1980s, according to data from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the juvenile arrest rate was about four times higher than adults,?an analysis of federal data by the Council on Criminal Justice found. By 2020, the rates for both adults and juveniles were about the same.

Misconceptions such as an overemphasis on the role juveniles play in carjackings and auto thefts can lead to misguided policies that may not enhance public safety and, in some cases, may exacerbate the situation, according to Josh Weber, deputy director in the corrections and reentry division of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a think tank focused on breaking the cycle of incarceration.

“[These misconceptions] tend to lead to more reactionary and punitive policies rather than policies that are necessarily grounded in research and data,” said Weber, who also directs the center’s juvenile justice program.

“Research has consistently shown that detaining more kids, incarcerating more kids, pushing more kids into the juvenile justice system is a bad public safety strategy,” Weber added. “It actually increases the likelihood that kids will reoffend.”

Addressing the surge in vehicular crime

The “super predator” mindset of the 1990s, fueled by fears of a generation of remorseless and violent young offenders, significantly shaped criminal justice policies for decades. This crime theory led to harsher penalties, higher juvenile incarceration rates and a focus on punitive measures rather than rehabilitation.

“We are always at risk when people are afraid of crime and instinctually just up penalties. We’ve been here before,” Rovner said. “One of the responses that comes up is the idea that a serious response is about sending kids to adult courts or adult jails or adult prisons, and that is absolutely the worst response when it comes to public safety.”

Former New Mexico State NCAA college basketball player Deuce Benjamin breaks down in tears while speaking at a news conference in Las Cruces, N.M., in May. Benjamin and Shak Odunewu discussed the lawsuit they filed alleging teammates ganged up and sexually assaulted them multiple times, while their coaches and others at the school didn’t act when confronted with the allegations. Some states have bolstered anti-hazing laws, but definitions and punishments aren’t uniform. (Andres Leighton/The Associated Press)

Max Gruver spent the early morning hours of Sept. 14, 2017, heavily intoxicated and passed out on a couch inside the Phi Delta Theta chapter house at Louisiana State University.

He had been forced to repeatedly chug 190-proof Diesel liquor in a hazing ritual called “Bible Study,” during which pledges are quizzed on fraternity facts. The incident caused Gruver, a freshman majoring in political communications, to inhale his own vomit into his lungs.

By the time fraternity members finally sought medical aid the next morning, Gruver’s pulse was weak and they couldn’t tell if he was breathing. Gruver’s blood alcohol level was .495, more than six times Louisiana’s legal driving limit, when he died from what an autopsy concluded was “acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration.” He was 18.

As college students begin a new semester this fall, many will participate in rituals to bring in new members of a Greek fraternity or sorority, a sports team or other club. Sometimes, the initiations involve heavy alcohol use or physical assaults. Although awareness of hazing and its dangers has grown significantly, it still happens.

In June, New Mexico State University agreed to pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit over hazing allegations in the men’s basketball program. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she will be introducing anti-hazing and abuse legislation?next year. In July, Northwestern University fired its head football coach after an investigation found widespread hazing on the team. And Boston College suspended its swim and dive team this month following hazing allegations.

At least 44 states and the District of Columbia have anti-hazing laws in place, most recently Ohio in 2021 and Pennsylvania in 2018. Kentucky and Washington?strengthened their laws this past legislative session. Six states — Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming — have none, according to StopHazing, an anti-hazing advocacy and research organization.

But?state?anti-hazing laws,?most of which were approved in the past 15 years,?differ in their definitions and the criminal penalties they impose. Depending on the state, participating in hazing activities may result in a fine, misdemeanor charge or a felony charge if the hazing results in serious bodily harm or death.

Some experts and anti-hazing advocates say the penalties in some states aren’t harsh enough to deter organizations from participating in hazing. And even in states that have laws, incidents like the one that left Max Gruver dead don’t necessarily lead to serious criminal charges.

Four former LSU students and ex-members of Phi Delta Theta were indicted in connection with Gruver’s death. Three of them faced misdemeanor hazing charges, while the fourth faced a felony charge of negligent homicide. The university also banned Phi Delta Theta from its campus until at least 2033.

Gruver’s parents — Rae Ann and Stephen Gruver — pressed for stiffer penalties for hazing, prompting Louisiana to enact the?Max Gruver Act?in 2018, which?made hazing that results in serious bodily harm or death a felony;?introduced a statewide definition of?hazing;?and mandated that hazing incidents and disciplinary actions taken against members of student groups be reported to the respective host institutions.

“It’s unfortunate that with the death of our son — it took that to get Louisiana to change their laws,” Stephen Gruver told Stateline. “It’s something that can be prevented; this never should have happened to our son.”

Since then, the Gruvers, along with parents of other hazing victims, have advocated for?stricter state and federal penalties for hazing and?greater transparency?when such incidents occur.

“If you don’t have a strong enough law, it’s not a deterrent for these kids and they’re just going to keep on being bad actors because they just don’t care,” Stephen Gruver said.

Hazing’s wide reach

Hazing, a practice rooted in tradition and camaraderie, has long been a controversial and pervasive issue on college campuses. While hazing incidents have garnered significant national attention over the past decade, the earliest account of hazing is believed to date back to the fourth century — when Plato observed young boys playing “practical jokes” on other students in school, according to a book written by journalist and anti-hazing advocate Hank Nuwer. The first anti-hazing law in the United States was enacted in New York in 1894.

In the U.S., more than 280 people allegedly have died due to hazing since 1838, according to the U.S. Hazing Deaths Database. The database is maintained by Nuwer. Hazing deaths are not currently tracked by any U.S. government entity.

In 2017, the year of Gruver’s death, at least six other young adults also died a result of alleged hazing activities. Between 2018 and 2021, at least 23 people allegedly died due to hazing activities. No hazing deaths were reported in 2022.

According to a 2008 study by two University of Maine professors, more than half of college students involved with student organizations experience hazing, which often involves “alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep-deprivation, and sex acts.” The study, which is considered the most comprehensive analysis of hazing in the United States, also found that about 47% of students come to college having already experienced hazing.

“Hazing is prevalent throughout society. It’s not just a college thing. It’s really seen anywhere that there’s a differing power dynamic,” Todd Shelton, the executive director of the Hazing Prevention Network, told Stateline. Hazing appears in settings such as high schools, other student groups, the military and professional workplaces.

In many states, hazing carries misdemeanor charges — a fact that some advocates argue does little to effectively deter hazing incidents.

“Where hazing is a minor misdemeanor, it’s not taken seriously by law enforcement because it’s not worth the effort to prosecute,” Shelton said. “One of the biggest hurdles is getting the penalty or statute to match the seriousness of the crime.”

‘Imagine getting that call,’ implored Kentucky mom

In Kentucky, Lofton’s Law was signed into law in March, increasing the penalty for hazing that leads to death or serious physical injury to a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Reckless participation in hazing can result in a misdemeanor.

The Kentucky law is named for Thomas “Lofton” Hazelwood of Henderson who died when he was 18 of alcohol poisoning while pledging the Farmhouse fraternity at the University of Kentucky.

His family and friends crusaded for the new law, which was sponsored by Sen. Robbie Mills, a Republican from Hazelwood’s hometown of Henderson. Mills, now the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, argued that hazing warranted its own law to emphasize the dangers and to send the message that “this is a serious issue and not something just to joke about.”

A UK investigation determined that Lofton had drunk about 18 one-ounce shots of bourbon within 45 minutes. Although no signs of physical coercion were found in connection to his death, UK detailed multiple occurrences of other hazing activities within the fraternity. Interviews revealed that new members were subject to line-ups and berating and expected to provide personal servitude and participate in illegal activities.

Tracey Hazelwood, Lofton’s mother, told the Lantern in February, “I had no clue what was going on. He was joining the Farmhouse, and we were told that it’s just a bunch of good old boys.”

She personally implored lawmakers to create penalties for hazing, telling a committee: “We beg of you to pass this law because we don’t want anyone else to go through what we went through. Think about being three hours away and you get that phone call.”

Washington makes hazing a gross misdemeanor

And in Washington state, the Sam Martinez Stop Hazing Law, which was passed unanimously and signed into law in May, makes hazing a gross misdemeanor instead of a misdemeanor; if the hazing results in substantial bodily harm, it rises to a felony. The law bumps up penalties for hazing from a maximum of 90 days to up to a year — and up to five years for the felony charge.

Washington became the 15th state to elevate hazing to a felony if it causes severe injury or death.

“For the first time we’re talking about hazing in a very real way. There’s been a culture of secrecy, in my view, of hazing for many, many years,” Rep. Mari Leavitt, a Democrat who wrote the bill, said in an interview with Stateline. “Students will recognize that there is a pretty significant consequence for choosing to behave in these barbaric activities and it can change the trajectory of their lives.”

The new law follows the passage of Sam’s Law in 2022, named after the same student, which updated the definition of hazing and required universities and colleges, as well as fraternity and sorority chapters, to make hazing investigation records public.

“The more that people are aware, and willing to talk about it and willing to report what they see, that will start to change that culture of secrecy to something that holds people accountable and also is transparent in terms of what’s happening across states,” Leavitt said.

Anti-hazing movement

In 15 states, a major weakness in the anti-hazing law, according to StopHazing, is the absence of a “consent clause,” which asserts that an individual’s willingness to participate in potentially hazardous actions — as when a student agrees to a certain activity — does not protect those involved from hazing charges. Some anti-hazing laws explicitly spell out that consent is not a defense.

“The consent clause … is really important in terms of documenting hazing and having policy be really effective,” said Elizabeth Allan, the principal of StopHazing and a professor of higher education at the University of Maine. Allan co-wrote the 2008 national study on hazing.

Advocacy groups also have been?pushing for national anti-hazing legislation to establish uniform?definitions and penalties.

Proposed federal legislation, originally known as the Report and Educate About Campus Hazing Act, or REACH Act, was initially introduced in Congress in 2021. This year, it is set to be reintroduced under a new name, the Stop Campus Hazing Act. The legislation encompasses a range of transparency and prevention measures, including mandatory public reporting of hazing incidents and the implementation of comprehensive prevention programs.

“Hazing is often underreported, underrecognized and it’s really not being taken as seriously as it should be given the harmful impact that it has on individuals and communities,” said Jessica Mertz, the executive director of the Clery Center, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting campus safety.

Among Greek fraternities and sororities, discussions around cracking down on hazing have gained momentum. Still, critics argue that most state anti-hazing laws should impose tougher penalties on national Greek life organizations and institutions, rather than individuals.

“As a founding member of the Anti-Hazing Coalition, the North American Interfraternity Conference and our member fraternities advocate for stronger federal and state hazing laws to increase criminal penalties and provide greater transparency to hold individuals accountable when found to be involved in hazing,” Judson Horras, CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, said in a statement.

“While in this partnership, we have seen stronger state laws passed in over a dozen states and are encouraged by the introduction of the bipartisan Stop Campus Hazing Act in the 118th Congress last week,” the statement said.

A 2020 paper by a Penn State University professor and published in the Journal of College and University Law underscores this argument. Law professor Justin J. Swofford argues that for legislation to be most effective in deterring future hazing injuries and deaths, there must be greater criminal and civil penalties imposed on both schools and fraternities.

However, some voices within the Greek life community question whether genuine change is achievable. Lucy Taylor, who disaffiliated from Alpha Phi at the University of Maryland and hosts “SNAPPED,” a podcast exploring Greek life, suggests that change within Greek organizations can often appear performative.

These initiatives may encompass disciplinary committees, mandatory anti-hazing programs or even the hiring of security teams, Taylor said.

“They make it seem like change is happening, but those things that they’re doing to create change don’t actually have any power. If they wanted hazing to be gone, it would have been gone years ago,” Taylor said. “They don’t do anything or they don’t do what they’re intended to do, and the hazing culture just becomes even more secret.

“The more secret it becomes, the worse it gets.”

What is known about intimate partner violence in Kentucky isn’t the whole picture; research suggests only around 54% of of domestic violence incidents like rape or assault are reported to police.?(Getty Images)

Reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.?

Kentucky’s Safe at Home?program, which helps survivors of interpersonal violence or threats stay anonymous on public records, is now serving 50 people, Secretary of State Michael Adams’ office announced Monday.?

The program, which went into effect in June, lets survivors of domestic violence hide their addresses when registering to vote without a protective order from a judge.?

It also allows the state Capitol to be the address on public records and lets those moving from out of state easily join the program.?

The Kentucky legislature made the Safe at Home program law in 2023. It’s meant to keep stalkers and abusers from accessing survivors’ locations and other identifying information that could put them at risk.?

Kentucky has the second worst rate of domestic violence in the United States, according to World Population Review data. The commonwealth is also 11th in the country for femicides – killings of females because of their gender, the Lantern previously reported.?

But with the new program, Adams said in a statement: “We are helping more survivors of abuse in the Commonwealth feel safe in their homes.”?

What is known about intimate partner violence in Kentucky isn’t the whole picture; research suggests only around 54% of of domestic violence incidents like rape or assault are reported to police.?(Getty Images)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

Almost half of Kentucky women — 45% — and around 36% of men in the state say they have experienced intimate partner violence — or threat of it — in their lifetimes.

Now, a first-of-its-kind statewide report, released June 30, takes a closer look at how police, courts and social service agencies in Kentucky respond. The report is the result of a bill in 2022 that directed agencies to annually gather and publish data on domestic and dating violence and abuse.

The information was compiled from the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet’s Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center, Kentucky State Police, Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the data in the 207 pages comes from 2022.

Cortney Downs, chief equity officer for Kentucky Youth Advocates, said it’s “shocking” to see that a “significant percentage of the state’s population” experience intimate partner violence or stalking.

“Regardless of knowing that it happens and understanding the dynamics of it, to see that specific number that is almost 50% is just mind blowing,” said Downs, who has a background in?domestic violence advocacy.

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, chairman the Senate Judiciary Committee, sponsored the bill that led to the report. He told the Kentucky Lantern that the report is a good jumping off point for addressing violence. It can also show, he said, what gaps in reporting exist.?

“I’m excited to see that we have an inaugural report,” he said. “We have a baseline; we have a place to start.”?

In the future, Westerfield would like to see data that shows any connections between domestic violence cases and homicides.?

“Quality data is critical for the criminal justice system as we work to enhance public safety,” Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary Kerry Harvey said in a statement after the report’s release. “Better data will lead to more effective prevention efforts and will be a useful tool for law enforcement agencies, courts and service providers.”

ZeroV, formerly Kentucky’s Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said in response to the report that “we must?continue to find ways to support survivors who do not reach out to law enforcement or the courts?for protection and help and identify the barriers such survivors face.”

“Both ZeroV and the Commonwealth of Kentucky at large have a responsibility to create?futures free from violence for all,” ZeroV said. “This data not only allows us to honor the lives impacted by?domestic violence but allows us to create best practices and prevention strategies to get the?violence in our state to zero.”

Complaints and arrests?

Police who respond to domestic violence calls fill out a JC-3 form, which documents injuries and then helps the Cabinet for Health and Family Services provide appropriate services to the victim.

Not all areas use electronic filing, but Westerfield would like to see it become universal.?

“Maybe, from a budget standpoint, there needs to be some incentives or carrot-stick approaches of one variety or another to get the remaining agencies using the electronic JC-3,” he said.?

In 2022, the region including Jefferson County filed the most electronic JC-3 forms at 15,602. That region also led the arrest totals at 2,833.?

In total, there were 38,708 electronic JC-3 forms filed across Kentucky in 2022 and 8,867 corresponding arrests.?

That gap between calls and arrests could be “a big red flag,” Westerfield said. He’ll have questions going forward about what it means.?

There are many potential reasons for more forms than arrests, Downs said. Arrest might not always be the appropriate response, she said.

Sometimes, a parent will call on a child who pushed past them in a hallway, she said. Some may call in to document an event, but don’t pursue charges. Other times, a?perpetrator may flee, making arrest impossible.

“There are some different factors. And, there may be some red flags there,” Downs said. “But… it’s almost like you have to go through and read some of the narratives just to kind of get a sense of what the outcomes are and if there is room for improvement there or not.”

The report also showed the Kentucky State Police served 16,402 emergency protective orders (EPOs), which are short-term orders that restrict the accused’s movements until the issue can go before a judge, which the court system aims to do within two weeks.?

Kentucky has the second highest rate of domestic violence in the United States, according to 2023 World Population Review data. The commonwealth is also 11th in the country for femicides, which are killings of females because of their gender.?

15 regional programs

Kentucky has domestic violence shelter programs across the state. In 2022, they sheltered? 3,241 people and otherwise served 12,805 – a total of 16,046.?

Additionally, the 15 regional domestic violence programs received 21,241 crisis calls in 2022.?

Adults ages 25 to 59 made up the majority of those served at 10,548. Of those who received both shelter and other services, 397 self-identified as members of the LGBTQ community. Nearly 400 — 395 —?had some level of language barrier.?

Of the 16,046 people served in and out of shelters for domestic violence issues, 67% were white, 11% were Black and 5% were Hispanic. There were 2,600 whose race was unknown and fewer than 1,000 who fell into other racial or ethnic groups.

In 2022, Kentucky’s population was 87% white, 9% Black and 4% Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.?

Any disparities in abuse or treatment options need to be further explored, Downs said.

“I think (domestic violence) is … an equal opportunity offender,” she said. “It can happen to anyone.”

Not just an adult problem?

Domestic violence, the report shows, isn’t only an adult problem.

While adults made up the majority of those receiving services, 1,739 children under the age of 12 received both shelter and non-shelter services. There were also 379 children ages 13-17 and four children whose ages were not known.?

Twenty-four youth ages 13-17 received services because they were victims of dating violence.

In total, 1,333 children received crisis intervention in 2022.

Already, Kentucky is one of the worst places for youngsters to live and ranks high for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).?

ACEs may include events closely tied to domestic violence, such as witnessing or experiencing violence, abuse, neglect or parental separation.?

Those early ACEs can lead to poor physical health, as well as social struggles and mental health issues in adults.

“It’s not uncommon to … see that generational impact where if you grow up around abuse, especially if you’re exposed early, if you’re exposed to it long term, you can see that cycle continue, sometimes as the victim or as the survivor, sometimes as the perpetrator,” Downs said.

The number of children receiving services, Westerfield said, is “astounding.”?

“I’m not surprised with the numbers,” he said, “but it’s stunning to see that number for the very first time. That’s a data point that I’m not aware we ever had before.”?

The number stands out especially because people usually think of adults when they think of domestic violence, he said.?

“You don’t think of children. You don’t think of minors. When I think of dating violence, I do think of young women in particular but I still don’t think of children. I think of college aged, high school age at the youngest.”?

For now, Westerfield said, policymakers and advocates have a jumping off point to address domestic violence in Kentucky.?

“It’s our first report. We’re going to see what deficits we have, not just in terms of information we’ve got, but we’re going to see the deficits and the information we don’t have and where we need to add to the report or fine tune it,” he said. “So we’ve got to start somewhere. And I’m glad that we’re finally starting … somewhere.”?

Beyond giving policymakers and advocates data to work with, Downs said the report can help bring awareness to how often domestic violence happens.

“I just hope that people take this opportunity to… educate themselves and just to understand that this is a long standing issue,” she said. “It is not one of those things that you can just look away from and hope that it will go away because it won’t. Abuse thrives in silence. So, we need to be able to look at it and we need to be able to name it and then…act on it. Do something about it.”

The waiver change wouldn't require legislative action. (Getty Images)

This story discusses suicidal ideation and sexual assault. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

If you’ve been sexually assaulted, you can call the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network helpline at 800-656-4673 or chat with someone from RAINN online at https://hotline.rainn.org/online.?

LOUISVILLE — At age 17, Jeremy Harrell was helping senior citizens fill their grocery store orders when it snowed.?

Six months later, he was learning to kill.?

And that’s where post-traumatic stress disorder starts for a lot of soldiers, Harrell said: at boot camp, when the values they were raised with are replaced.?

But the disorder can look different person to person — and much more than war can trigger it, ?therapists who treat the condition told the Kentucky Lantern. Even seeing something traumatic happen to someone else can lead to PTSD.?

Car wrecks can cause it, as can home invasions, threats and sexual violence.?

The latter caused Caroline Wormald’s PTSD.?

She was a first-year undergraduate at Northern Kentucky University studying psychology, when a stranger she’d just met on a dating app?sexually assaulted her in her dorm.?

She was 19 when it happened — in March, right after Spring Break 2019.?

The flashbacks started as Wormald underwent an exam in the emergency room shortly thereafter. They joined with nightmares to keep her awake at night. ?She lives with symptoms of PTSD to this day.

Clinicians who treat post-traumatic stress disorder in Kentucky said PTSD is a complicated condition and can feel quite isolating – statements that are true in Harrell and Wormald’s cases.?

Natasha R. Porter, the CEO and clinical director of Beacon of Light Behavioral Health, said PTSD develops when a person’s brain is exposed to something that it cannot process nor move past.?

The brain gets “stuck,” she said. “And that’s why we have the nightmares and the flashbacks and all the emotion surrounding it.”?

Porter, herself an Army veteran, said it’s important to note that PTSD isn’t restricted to soldiers, though many do experience it.?

The United States Department of Veteran Affairs says that veterans are more likely than civilians to develop PTSD, especially if they were deployed. However, around 6% of the general population experiences PTSD at some point in life, according to the VA.?

That number jumps to 8% among women, who are more likely to experience sexual violence.?

Jeremy Harrell’s story?

Louisville’s Harrell, an Army veteran who served both stateside and in Iraq from 1999 to 2008, was diagnosed with PTSD after he returned to civilian life.?

But the journey to a diagnosis — and to accepting it — wasn’t a direct one.?

For Harrell, the journey to diagnosis took five years. It was that long before he knew something was off.?

He turned 21 while serving overseas. When he came home, he thought all the changes in his life were because he was older. He wasn’t happy — ever. He didn’t enjoy the same things he did before, he forgot information and struggled to stay awake in work meetings.?

“I guess this is kind of part of maturing and becoming a man,” he recalls thinking. “I just assumed that everybody else was in the same boat.” He had a young child at home and another on the way. This was all part of that, he reasoned.?

He finally went to Veteran Affairs for evaluation. Mostly, he said, he wanted to prove everyone who thought he had PTSD wrong.?

He did not.?

“Looking back, I’m glad that they evaluated me for all these things. That’s a blessing, to be evaluated,” he said. “But at the time, it was demoralizing and I felt like my whole world had collapsed.”?

The testing process made him feel like a “hamster in a cage,” he said. He felt exposed, broken.?

Depression took over, leading to suicidal thoughts so he wouldn’t “be a burden to my family.”?

“It’s really a terrible, terrible space,’ Harrell said. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”?

Finally, a light.?

Harrell decided to approach his PTSD like a war. “I thought: ‘if I’m going to win against this enemy, PTSD … then I must learn all I can about it.’”?

He decided to use his story to help fellow soldiers so that “maybe, just maybe, they won’t have to suffer in silence for a decade before they realize something’s wrong.”?

He founded Veteran’s Club, which is based in the Louisville area and advocates for mental health through a variety of programs. Now, he’s a well-known advocate for mental well-being in Kentucky.?

Caroline Wormald’s?story?

Wormald went to NKU’s Norse Violence Prevention Center?shortly after the assault in 2019 and reported the incident to the school, which she said was quite supportive of her during the process.?

The center’s staff helped guide her to the hospital and to the police, she said.?

She also got free weekly therapy through NKU to help cope with the flashbacks and other fallout of the assault, she said.?

Through that therapy, she got a post traumatic stress disorder diagnosis.

“I definitely felt like my sense of safety was interfered with, especially the night it happened because he was a complete stranger,” Wormald said. “I was afraid he was going to come back.”?

Wormald suffered from flashbacks and nightmares, as well as “terrifying” hallucinations.?

“I’d wake up in the morning and I’d be full on hallucinating and I knew I was but it was terrifying,” she recalled. “I had a guitar at the time … one morning … I woke up and I just saw him there and for a second I thought it was real. So … I went and … I leaned over and tried to punch him and I punched my guitar at, like, seven in the morning.”?

She missed classes and school from sleep issues — waking up from the nightmares, exhausted. It was difficult to get out of bed until everyone was awake in the dorm and the lights were on. Sleep medication finally helped her rest.?

Four years later, Wormald plans to return to NKU this fall as a law student and plans to use her experience to fight for others.?

“I want to work with families and people like me who’ve had situations similar to mine,” she said, “and just … be an advocate and stand up for them in regards to the legal system.”?

The COVID-19 effect

After her assault, Wormald socially isolated herself. She didn’t make new friends and became “petrified of strangers, but specifically men.”?

COVID-19 only exacerbated that.?

“I was isolating myself even before COVID happened,” she said. “And then with COVID happening, it just made it worse. Now I had a general reason, really, not to put myself out there.”?

The pandemic was “detrimental” to the veteran community as well, Harrell said.?

Similarly to Wormald’s experience: “It gave veterans who tend to isolate a justification to do so.”?

Kentucky got its first case of COVID-19 in March 2020. Massive shutdowns and physical distancing defined much of that year — and the next couple.?

The national emergency declaration ended in May 2023, but the virus is still present.?

So, too, is the continued fallout: educational setbacks, child welfare concerns, workforce challenges?and mental health struggles.?

“I know everybody wants to say, ‘COVID is over, quit talking about it,’” Harrell said. “But the reality is: that was a very, very serious event that lasted a long time that will forever have residual effects on our society and individuals.”?

What’s the treatment for PTSD??

Because PTSD looks different person to person, so does treatment. Common treatments include eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT or talk therapy).?

Brothers and clinicians Travis and Anthony Andrews said PTSD can sometimes find its roots in gun violence and its effect on neighborhoods.?

Together they founded Andrews Counseling & Consulting, and also work with One Lexington, which is part of the mayor’s office and seeks to address violence in Fayette County

They said talk therapy is the main way they treat it. But, they said, to truly address PTSD requires a much more holistic approach.?

Thinking holistically about PTSD?

While a lot of people hear “PTSD” and think of acute trauma — one traumatic event or incident — there are more layers, Travis Andrews said. There is also chronic trauma, such as domestic violence or other abuse that happens over time. Finally, complex trauma features multiple traumatic events.?

“What makes this very prevalent is the fact that a lot of these traumas have been left untreated,” he explained. “So it’s no different than us going to a medical doctor and we have an ankle injury at age 4, 6, 10 and we never got that treated … and now we will be going into the doctor five or six years later saying ‘hey, can I get some rehabilitation on my leg?’”?

He also sees misdiagnoses when it comes to children with PTSD because of poverty, socioeconomic status, gun violence or other social-ecological factors.?

“People are not getting their basic needs met,” Travis said. “They’re living in a day to day not knowing how they’re going to eat, seeing domestic violence in their household, seeing all these negative incidents that they’re living with daily, which will result (in) other criminal activities.”?

Generational trauma and oppression can also result in PTSD and untreated stress, Travis said, because trauma becomes the accepted normal.?

“We think about oppressed communities … majority communities of color who have been subjected to discrimination, harsh living conditions, things of that nature,” he said. “These communities have been taught just to have a level of resilience. So what does resilience look like? Sometimes that means avoiding the problems. … So that means a person is left untreated.”?

Fighting a ‘debilitating stigma’?

Porter sees stigma constantly when treating PTSD — and exaggerated depictions in films and on television only make it worse.?

“The stigma is there and it’s horrible,” she said. “And it’s debilitating, honestly.”?

Anthony Andrews said mainstream films that show mental health as horror, as a person escaping a psychiatric ward and terrorizing their community, only hurt real people who have PTSD.?

“The media plays a huge part because what they show is going to be how people connect,” Anthony said. If movies and news only show PTSD as it relates to mass shootings, he said, “‘well, people only have PTSD when they experience mass shootings.'”?

If it’s depicted only in war movies, then, he said, people will believe “‘this is what PTSD looks like.’”?

In military circles, Porter’s heard PTSD called weak. But nothing could be further from the truth.?

“Think of your worst nightmare,” she explained. “(Imagine) the worst time that you’ve ever had, and imagine it replaying in your mind all day.”?

That’s what PTSD feels like, she said. And it sometimes drives some to think of ending their lives.?

“Suicide happens because they feel trapped,” she said. “And they don’t feel like there’s another way and they feel like a burden.” But, she said, there is always hope. Therapy can help.?

Harrell hears that suicidality a lot in his advocacy work with fellow veterans now.?

But: “That’s just a transference of pain from the person who committed suicide to their family,” he said. And: “I can assure you: the worst day with you is much better than not having you.”?

Policy opportunities?

To truly address PTSD through policy, the Andrews brothers said, lawmakers must look at those ecological factors and find ways to incorporate treatment into culture. What would it look like, they wonder, if whole campuses — professors, coaches, cafeteria workers — spoke through trauma-informed care??

Policymakers should look at ways to increase funding for mental health care and access to it, they said. Workplaces should also offer broad accommodations for mental health conditions.?

So many people have anxiety, stress and PTSD, the therapists said. Because of that, they said: everyone should have equal access to treatment and mental health care.?

The national plan defines gender-based violence as any harmful threat or act directed at an individual or group based on actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, sex characteristics or sexual orientation. (Getty Images)

For the first time in history, the White House has launched a national plan to address gender-based violence on a federal level, introducing seven strategic action plans to help communities across the United States.

“As long as there are women in this country and around the world who live in fear of violence, there’s more we have to do to fulfill this sacred commitment,” President Joe Biden said in the U.S. National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. “No one — no one, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, should experience abuse. Period. And if they do, they should have the services and support they need to get through it.”

Gender-based violence is a public safety and public health crisis, according to the White House, and it is affecting urban, suburban, rural and tribal communities across the U.S.

The national plan defines gender-based violence as any harmful threat or act directed at an individual or group based on actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, sex characteristics or sexual orientation.

Gender-based violence impacts all populations, but the experiences of persons of color are disproportionately affected. The national plan reported that Black women and Indigenous women are killed by a current or former partner at a rate 2.5 times that of white women.

An estimated 56% of Indigenous women have reported experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime, more than 55% have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner and 49% have experienced stalking, according to the White House’s plan.

“Gender-based violence violates fundamental human rights, destroys communities, and fosters social inequities,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a press release. “Identifying and preventing these crimes is a top department priority, underscored by this first-ever national plan and the government’s collective commitment to this cause.”

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey reported that more than half of women (54.3%) and nearly one-third (31%) of men in the United States had reported some form of sexual violence victimization in their lifetimes.

The rate of intimate partner violence of women was seven times the rate of men, according to National Crime Victimization Survey, and the rate of rape or sexual assault of women was also seven times the rate of men.

The White House launched the national plan on May 25, resulting from the Biden administration’s Gender Policy Council, which was established in 2021.

“Sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, and human trafficking are serious violent crimes that make our nation less equal and less just,” Acting Director Allison Randall of the Office on Violence Against Women said in a press release.

“Only a comprehensive response that is deeply informed by survivors and historically marginalized communities can end gender-based violence,” Randall added.

The seven strategic pillars part of the national plan include: prevention; support, healing, safety, and well-being; economic security and housing stability; online safety; legal and justice systems; emergency preparedness and crisis response; and research and data.

The White House said that these strategies are building upon existing federal initiatives, and the national plan will provide an essential framework for strengthening ongoing federal action and interagency collaboration.

Each strategic pillar identifies different goals and objectives to help address gender-based violence. For instance, the prevention pillar outlines three goals which include: Enhancing and promoting gender-based violence prevention; enhancing dissemination and implementation of gender-based violence prevention strategies; and improving prevention efforts to change social norms that support or condone gender-based violence and to promote healthy and respectful relationships across the life course.

The national plan serves as a framework for federal agencies and other stakeholders working to end gender-based violence. It is intended to inform and guide federal and nonfederal entities’ research, policy development, program planning, service delivery, and other efforts.

In 2019, Johnnie Haire broke ground on a new section of Sunset Gardens of Memory cemetery in Millstadt, Ill., to create the “Garden of Grace,” which includes teenagers and young adults, many of whom were victims of gun violence. (Cara Anthony/KHN)

This article was republished from KHN (Kaiser Health News).

MILLSTADT, Ill. — It was a late Friday afternoon when a team of men approached a tiny pink casket. One wiped his brow. Another stepped away to smoke a cigarette. Then, with calloused hands, they gently lowered the child’s body into the ground.

Earlier that day, the groundskeepers at Sunset Gardens of Memory had dug the small grave up on a hill in a special section of this cemetery in a southern Illinois community across the river from St. Louis. It was for a 3-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet.

“It can be stressful sometimes,” Jasper Belt, 26, said. “We have to use little shovels.”

More than 30 years ago, Johnnie Haire and the other groundskeepers built a garden site just for children, separate from unlabeled sections of the 30-acre cemetery where they used to bury infants. They added a birdbath and bought angel figurines, carefully painting each one a hue of brown. Haire wanted the angels to be Black, like many of the children laid to rest here.

“This is ‘Baby Land,’” said Haire, 67, Sunset Gardens’ grounds supervisor, as he gestured across the area. “This is where a lot of babies are buried.”

Cemeteries like this one have long honored those who die too young. Such special burial sites exist in Gainesville, Florida; Quincy, Illinois; Owensboro, Kentucky; and beyond. They are for stillborn children and those who died of disease or accidents.

Today, a modern epidemic fills more graves than anything else: In the U.S., firearm-related injuries were the leading cause of death for children in 2020, ahead of motor vehicle crashes, according to researchers from the University of Michigan.

The men at Sunset Gardens are collecting data in their own way, too.

In 2019, Haire broke ground on a new section of the cemetery where teenagers and young adults are buried, including those killed by COVID-19 and many who were victims of gun violence. It’s called the “Garden of Grace.” It’s already been used more than anyone would like.

“One time, it was just every weekend. Just a steady flow,” Haire said. “This one getting killed over here. This one getting killed over there. They fighting against each other, some rival gangs or whatever they were. So we had a lot. A lot of that.”

And 2021 was especially deadly nationwide: More than 47,000 people of all ages died from gunshot injuries, the highest U.S. toll since the early 1990s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This past year wasn’t as deadly nationally, though the tally is still being finalized.

The groundskeepers at Sunset Gardens have learned to watch their step in Baby Land because grieving parents drop off toys, candy, and balloons for their deceased children. “They just do things so differently in grief,” said Jocelyn Belt, 35, whose dad, William Belt Sr., 66, has worked at the cemetery since before she was born. Her brother and cousin work there, too.

The groundskeepers work quietly as families grieve. William Belt Jr., 44, said he doesn’t pry, even if he knows the family and would like to know how they’re doing.

“That’s what you learn not to do,” he said. “We let them come to us.”

But often, the men said, they are anonymous amid the rituals of grief. William Belt Jr. said he sometimes runs into those who attended the burials around town. “They don’t know my name. They’ll be like, ‘Gravedigger, you buried my mom. Man, thanks.’”

These men understand the complicated pain of losing loved ones. In the past year alone, the Belt family has experienced three deaths, including a relative who was shot and killed.

And on New Year’s Eve, William Belt Jr. himself was shot while in his truck outside a gas station convenience store.

“Nobody’s exempt,” he said, while recovering at home. “It could have been an old lady going to get some cornmeal or something like that from that store and could have got caught right in the crossfire.”

His family is thankful he’s OK. He is still grappling with his own close call, though.

“I would have probably been overtime for some of my co-workers. That’s something to think about,” Belt said. “And then they wouldn’t been able to go to my funeral ’cause they got to bury me.”

William Belt Sr. said his body froze when his son was shot. And he said he couldn’t hold back his emotions when he buried his brother and niece less than a month apart. Many of their relatives are buried at Sunset Gardens — literally by them.

“I weep,” he said. “Big difference between crying and weeping. Weeping, I’m closer to God.”

Their job is physical, emotional work done in all seasons, all weather. Injuries occur. Heartbreak is everywhere.

To hold their own hearts together, the groundskeepers often decompress as they eat lunch in a shed near the cemetery’s front office, trading stories in front of a wood-burning stove to keep warm during winter. They find joy where they can. The Belts like to fish. And the senior Belt occasionally sings the blues to soothe his soul. Parker, a long-haired cat, provides them company, too — and enjoys investigating the men’s lunches.

And they laugh when they can. William Belt Sr. still remembers his first year on the job. He wanted to be respectful, he said with a smile, even though his clients were deceased.

“‘Excuse me, coming through,’” Belt recalled saying as he walked through the cemetery. “Then I got myself together.”

Digging graves for a living wasn’t on the career list for Belt or his friend Haire. But that’s exactly what the two men have done for some 43 years — whether it’s for those who lived long, full lives or those whose young lives were cut short. They’re caretakers.

“That’s the proper name for it,” Haire said.

As he stood amid the graves on a recent day, he noted that the wooden Baby Land sign that welcomes mourners is worn. The paint on the angels is peeling, too.

“It needs touching up over there,” Haire said. “But I’ve been busy.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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