New York paves the way in dealing effectively with abuse victims

THE New York district attorney who pioneered the city’s widely-praised response to domestic violence has told the Government the same approach can work here.

Brooklyn district attorney Charles J Hynes led the reform of the city’s treatment of victims and the establishment of its Family Justice Centre.

He spoke at the two-day conference in Waterford organised to guide Irish policy on domestic abuse.

The conference was hosted by the Department of Justice’s Cosc office, set up last year after the then minister Michael McDowell visited New York and was impressed by its comprehensive approach.

Mr Hynes said abuse victims faced a number of obstacles before they could break from violent relationships and it was important to allow them easy access to services.

In the New York City Family Justice Centre, victims can avail of court clerks, police, housing officials, children’s welfare workers and locksmiths all under the one roof.

Mr Hynes said Ireland can learn from this.

“What we can offer you is 19 years of experience of what we went through, the bumps we hit and the solutions we came to.

“You cannot leave this important work to the dedicated few, it is always easy to adopt the attitude it is happening to somebody else but we all have a part to play,” he said.

Mr Hynes was one of six international speakers invited to speak on the first day of the Cosc conference at the Waterford Institute of Technology.

Before it closes today, 150 invited delegates will hear from six more experts.

Yesterday, Professor Betsy Stanko, strategic analyst from the London Metropolitan Police’s improvement unit, said the gardaí had to be trained to use the information available on domestic violence victims to raise the alarm.

“Police know quite a lot about what is happening, what they do not know how to use that information to build response,” she said.

She advised Irish authorities to use London’s example and put in place measurable tests for each incident of domestic violence to ensure there was a consistent look at the risk faced by each victim.

This includes a mandatory risk-assessment for every person who makes a second report and immediate action for anybody making allegations of a sexual nature.

Ms Stanko said cases of female homicide frequently revealed multitudes of missed opportunities where police and other services had information but did not put this in perspective.