What Can Communities do to Prevent Domestic Violence?

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• Expand education and awareness efforts to increase positive attitudes toward nonviolence and encourage individuals to report family violence.
• Form or task forces to assess the problem, develop an action plan, and monitor progress.
• Mandate training in domestic violence for all social services and criminal justice professionals.
• Advocate laws and judicial procedures at the state and local levels that support and protect battered women.
• Establish centers where visits between batterers and their children may be supervised, for the children's safety.
• Fund shelters adequately.
• Recruit and train volunteers to staff hotlines, accompany victims to court, and provide administrative support to shelters and victim services.
• Improve collection of child support.
• Establish medical protocols to help physicians and other health care personnel identify and help victims of domestic abuse.
• Provide legal representation for victims of domestic violence.
• Advocate for the accessibility of services for all population groups, especially underserved populations which include immigrants and refugees, gays and lesbians, racial and ethnic minorities and the disabled.

Adapted from: "Preventing Violence Against Women: Not Just A Women's Issue," the National Crime Prevention Council, 1995. 

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