News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 1, 1999
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Domestic Violence Action Group offers recommendations

OLYMPIA — A report from the Governor's Domestic Violence Action Group, entitled Everybody's Business, calls on all citizens to learn more about the problem, support its victims and work to reduce violence.

Gov. Gary Locke appointed the group, chaired by Seattle Municipal Court Judge Helen Halpert, after reading about a case involving Linda David, a disabled woman who allegedly was beaten over many years while being kept in isolation on a filthy sailboat. Her husband faces assault and other charges in Snohomish County Superior Court. Until 1996, the state Department of Social and Health Services paid for his services as her caregiver.

"Everyone should carefully consider these recommendations, because they apply to everyone," Locke said. "Domestic violence isn't a private matter between individuals. Government cannot solve this problem alone. Domestic violence is everybody's business."

Locke asked the group to recommend ways to help prevent such incidents from happening to anyone else, and to reduce domestic violence in Washington. After four months of study and discussion, the group offered 41 recommendations for all citizens, for the justice system, for the social service system, and for better coordination when these systems interact.

"Domestic violence and caregiver abuse share a common source: the perceived need or right to have power and control over another human being," the report found. "There is still resistance to the idea ... that men do not have the right to control and dominate their wives or girlfriends. Similarly, there is resistance to the idea that people with disabilities and the elderly have a right to self-determination and control of their own lives."

But "attitudes can and do change," the report said, citing changes in smoking, drunk driving, and seat belt use when citizens, businesses, nonprofit groups and media made a sustained commitment, with government as an active partner. As for domestic violence, the report concluded that "prosecution of the guilty is not enough. We must also focus on preventing violence by changing attitudes towards women, people with disabilities, and elders."

Other members of the Action Group were:

* David Boerner, associate professor of law, Seattle University
* Jeannie Bryant, deputy prosecuting attorney, Clark County
* Regina LaBelle, president, Northwest Women's Law Center
* Carlos Olivares, executive director, Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic
* Rebecca Roe, attorney with Schroeter, Goldmark, and Bender
* Kathy Shore, Governor's Interagency Committee of State Employed Women
* Nan Stoops, associate director, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence
* Dr. Sue Tomita, social worker, Harborview Medical Center
* Dr. Carolyn M. West, University of Washington
* Sue Wilkes, executive Director, Refugee Women's Alliance
* Colleen Wilson, chief of police, Monroe Police Department

Copies of the report are available from the Governor's Policy Office, 360-902-0668. The report is also posted on the governor's web site at http://www.governor.wa.gov/taskcomm/action/action.htm

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