Four Texas-based U.S. attorneys met in Dallas on Tuesday to tour The Family Place and discuss the domestic violence crisis in the state.
The Family Place, the largest provider of family violence services in Texas, empowers survivors of family violence with safe housing, counseling, and job skills to create independence. The organization encourages community engagement and advocates for social change to stop family violence.
Last year, 205 domestic violence (DV) homicides were reported in Texas, nearly twice the number of DV homicides recorded a decade ago, according to a report by the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV). The victims ranged in age from 15 to 88 years old. The majority of the victims — 179 — were female, and 26 were male.
Dallas County ranked #2 for the most domestic violence homicides, and Tarrant County ranked # 4. Harris County, which includes Houston, ranked #1 in the state.
However, the homicides reported are only a fraction of the domestic violence issue, according to Gloria Aguilera Terry, the CEO of TCFV. The organization is exploring ways to expand its annual report to include survivors, she said, per The Dallas Morning News.
Some 200,000 calls to 9-1-1 in Texas last year were related to family violence. More than 6,000 domestic violence survivors were served by family violence programs last year in Texas, but another 1,100 requests, mostly for housing and shelter, were unmet due to insufficient resources.
However, the true number of domestic violence victims may be much higher. Only 10-25% of survivors of family violence will step forward to access services, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The majority of domestic violence homicide victims last year — nearly 70% — were killed with a firearm, according to the TCFV report, so that was a topic for discussion at the meeting.
The four U.S. attorneys frequently mentioned the “Rahimi” case, which was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court this past summer. The case was brought by Zackey Rahimi, an Arlington, Texas, man who argued that his arrest for possessing a firearm while subject to a domestic violence protective order was a violation of his Second Amendment right.
Although a Fifth Circuit judge ruled the arrest unconstitutional, Leigha Simonton, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, pursued the case all the way to the Supreme Court, where judges overturned the lower court’s ruling in an 8-1 decision. Simonton said the outcome of the case impacted how federal prosecutors handle domestic violence cases involving firearms.
“When the Fifth Circuit ruled it was unconstitutional, we went ahead and kept pursuing other types of statutes that we could use in that space, but that was a hindrance,” said Simonton, per DMN. “Now, it’s full steam ahead.”
U.S. Attorney Damien Diggs of the Eastern District of Texas said that his office is launching an initiative named Operation Purple Ribbon, which targets domestic abusers with extensive assault and criminal history for prosecution at the federal level.
In addition to Diggs and Simonton, Alamdar Hamdani, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, and Jaime Esparza, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, attended the meeting. Victim advocates shared their experiences, and other nonprofit organizations were in attendance to learn about tools to help domestic violence survivors in North Texas.
