None of the 17 homicides in Montgomery County last year was caused by domestic violence, according to law enforcement officials, a historic low credited partially to the area’s first center offering comprehensive legal advice and counseling to victims. “For a county of nearly 1 million people, with a population as diverse as this, that’s pretty amazing,” said Hannah Sassoon, the county’s domestic violence coordinator. “I think that people live in fear of coming forward, but actually coming forward will save lives. More people are doing that now.”
In her two decades monitoring domestic violence for the sheriff’s office, Sassoon said 2010 was the first year that did not have a single murder tied to a domestic attack. Up to a third of all homicides in a given year are traditionally related to domestic violence — or about half a dozen each year in the county.
Public safety advocates point to the Montgomery County Family Justice Center, which opened May 2009 in Rockville, as a reason for the decline. The center has offered free legal help and advice, access to police, financial assistance, social service counseling, child care, immigration guidance and other services to more than 2,100 victims of domestic violence from 100 countries, according to its leaders.
During the past year, Montgomery County Health and Human Services saw a 20 percent uptick in domestic violence victims seeking help, a spike attributed squarely to the center — the county pays about $700,000 a year for the lease to the building.
“Domestic violence homicides are among the most preventable homicides,” said Councilman Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville, chairman of the public safety committee. “There is almost always an indication of trouble before the homicide occurs or a pattern at least. If intervention is done well, it makes a significant difference.”
Officials at the justice center say one in every four women will experience abuse and that children in those homes are 1,500 times more likely to be harmed. Over the past 20 years, 1,500 people in Maryland have died as a result of domestic violence.
In 2007, for example, Montgomery County police recorded 2,000 incidents of domestic violence.
