Assembly Resolution No. 749

BY: M. of A. Bichotte Hermelyn

MEMORIALIZING Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim
April 26, 2022, as Domestic Violence Awareness and
Prevention Day in the State of New York

WHEREAS, As part of executing its mission, the New York State
Coalition Against Domestic Violence seeks to create and support the
social change necessary to prevent and confront all forms of domestic
violence and to ensure the availability and accessibility of innovative
and effective supports and services for all domestic violence survivors
and their families; and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive behavior and
tactics used by someone against their intimate partner in an attempt to
gain or maintain power and control; types of abuse can include physical,
sexual, psychological, technological and economic abuse; and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence is not limited to specific groups based
on race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation,
ethnicity, age, religious affiliation or social location, but rather is
perpetrated by abusers from all social groups; and

WHEREAS, On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically
abused by an intimate partner in the United States -- more than 10
million women and men over the course of a year; and

WHEREAS, Approximately one in three women and one in 10 men in the
United States have experienced some form of domestic violence or
interpersonal violence in their lifetime, yet only 43% of violent
victimizations are reported to police; and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence affects the LGBTQ+ community at a rate
equal to or even greater than that of the cisgender, heterosexual
community; and

WHEREAS, Survivors of domestic violence experience a host of health
and mental health related consequences at far greater rates than their
counterparts who have not been abused; and

WHEREAS, New York State consistently has the greatest demand for
domestic violence support services in the country with 6,646 survivors
requesting services on just one day in 2021, and 766 unfulfilled service
requests because domestic violence service providers did not have the
resources to provide such services; and

WHEREAS, According to the Mayor's office, the police department in
New York City responded to more than 233,000 domestic incident reports
in 2020, of which nearly 106,000 involved intimate partners; and

WHEREAS, The NYS Office of Children and Family Services reported
that more than 48,000 survivors of domestic violence and their children
received services from residential, non-residential, and transitional
housing programs, and nearly 322,000 hotline calls were received across
the State in 2019; and


WHEREAS, According to the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services,
there were 60 intimate partner homicides in New York State in 2020, with
domestic homicides accounting for 14 percent of all homicides reported
in the State; and

WHEREAS, Intimate partner violence starts early and continues
throughout the lifespan, as demonstrated by the fact that about 11
million women and five million men who reported experiencing contact
sexual violence, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in
their lifetime said that they first experienced these forms of violence
before the age of 18; and

WHEREAS, The economic burden of domestic violence in the United
States is staggering, with costs to the U.S. economy estimated to be
between $5.8 billion and $12.6 billion annually, with 21-60 percent of
victims of intimate partner violence often losing their jobs due to
reasons stemming from the abuse; and

WHEREAS, The cost of a single homicide is estimated at $17.25
million when considering medical care, lost future earnings, related
public programming and services, and property damage and other losses;
and

WHEREAS, Researchers estimate that one in 15 children in the United
States are exposed to intimate partner violence, for a total of five
million children, and children who witness intimate partner violence
growing up are three times more likely as their peers to engage in
violent behavior; and

WHEREAS, Primary prevention strategies address the root causes and
conditions that make domestic violence possible, and public health
research has shown that implementing prevention activities at multiple
levels on the social ecology scale - individual, relationship,
community, and societal - will lead to lasting social change; and

WHEREAS, Primary prevention is focused on establishing gender
equality, cultivating and promoting healthy relationship behaviors, and
changing conditions in our communities and culture to stop domestic
violence before it starts; and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence advocates consistently provide
comprehensive and compassionate life-saving services, advocacy, and
support to survivors of domestic violence and their children, while
leading essential primary prevention efforts within their communities to
motivate the change needed to stop domestic violence from happening in
the first place; and

WHEREAS, As part of executing its mission, the New York State
Coalition Against Domestic Violence seeks to create and support the
social change necessary to prevent and confront all forms of domestic
violence, to ensure the availability and accessibility of innovative and
effective supports and services for all domestic violence survivors and
their families, and to dismantle oppression, end systemic racism and
uproot the inequities that foster violence; and

WHEREAS, New York State needs to continually and significantly
invest in services and supports for domestic violence survivors and

their families in order to meet the rising demand for assistance and to
continue progress toward ending domestic violence once and for all; now
therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
memorialize Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim April 26th, 2022, as
Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Day in the State of New York;
and be it further

RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to The Honorable Kathy Hochul, Governor of the State of New
York, and the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.