San Rafael, CA – With domestic violence the most common of all violent crimes in Marin County, the coordinated effort to promote peace in the home is surging, fueled by outrage from high-profile national reports of physical abuse.
The County of Marin is hosting the Marin County Family Violence Prevention Summit on October 1 that will focus on collaborating strategies to enforce zero tolerance policies and end the abuse. The summit, sponsored by the Marin County Board of Supervisors, will include participation from the Marin County Probation Department, the Marin County District Attorney’s Office, Marin County Public Defender’s Office, Marin County Sheriff’s Office, Marin County Health and Human Services, Kaiser Permanente and the Center for Domestic Peace.
The training will be at the Four Points Sheraton hotel in San Rafael and include an overview of domestic violence in Marin, personal testimonies and four breakout sessions. The keynote presentation will be by Dr. Jeffrey Edleson, Dean and Professor of the school of Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley. Edleson also is a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work and the founding director of the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse. In recent years, Edleson’s work has focused on the impact of adult domestic violence on children and how social systems respond to those children.
Between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2104, 835 incidents of domestic violence – about 2.3 per day – were referred to the Marin County District Attorney's Office by local law enforcement agencies. Experts believe the number of incidents isn’t an accurate depiction of the problem because most domestic violence incidents are not reported to law enforcement.
Child abuse, child neglect, and familial and non-familial physical elder abuse crimes are included under the umbrella of family violence. With the aging of Marin's population, Chief Probation Officer Michael Daly said he wants to make sure there is not an increase in the number of crimes of abuse, particularly against the elderly as Marin’s population ages. “This vulnerable population needs to be protected against all forms of abuse including financial, physical and emotional abuse,” Daly said.
In 2013, the Probation Department was tasked with forming a group that includes local agencies that work in all aspects of family violence. The Marin County Family Violence Consortium was created to coordinate efforts by County departments such as the DA’s Office, Probation, the Public Defender’s Office, Health and Human Services plus the Marin County Office of Education, the San Rafael Police Department, Marin County Superior Court and other stakeholders. The first meeting of the consortium took place one year ago and, as Daly said, “We have worked to understand the role each of us plays in making Marin County a safer place.”
The October 1 training runs from 8 AM to 3:30 PM and is open to all for a $25 registration fee. Register online or call the Probation Department at 415-473-6599.