How You Can Combat the Scourge of Domestic Violence in Kane County

I've often said that one of the great, unreported stories in our community is the proliferation of domestic violence.

After regularly following the police blotter in Geneva for about three years and Batavia for the past several months, it's clear that the issue isn't going away, and domestic violence still is swept under the rug and under-reported in my estimation.


There's a way you can help — and we'll get to that in just a second — but first some quantification and quick compliments to the Geneva and Batavia police officers and Kane County state's attorney prosecutors who have the hard job of dealing with these often-dangerous, always sensitive incidents that occur daily.

According to the Fox Valley Court Watch website, Kane County State's Attorney Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit prosecutes about 1,500 misdemeanor cases per year along with 150 felonies. Another 150 domestic cases are assigned to other prosecutors.

The St. Charles Police Department reports that domestic violence/abuse crimes are the second-most-common calls responded to by police officers yearly, according to Court Watch. Phoenix, Arizona, also released the same information.

The Kane County Sheriff's Department reports that officers answer 60-plus domestic violence/abuse calls per month.

Some of these stats are a few years old, but the victim contacts in 2009 for Community Crisis Center, a shelter in Elgin includes:

• 1,460 victims contacted
• 4,668 calls were received on their hotline
• Court Advocates assisted 127 victims with 121 Emergency Orders of Protection and 66 Plenary Orders

• Averaged over 1,500 hot line calls per month. 
• Provided 11,913 nights of shelter to victims.
• Assisted 393 clients in obtaining 300 Orders of Protection.
• Provided 17,160 hours of support and education services to 1,442 domestic violence victims.