News/Events

February 15, 2015

The domestic violence annual report released that only 2 people were killed last year in Santa Clara County by a spouse or significant other, making it the fewest number of domestic violence deaths in 20 years.
It’s not clear why the number of deaths last year dropped to a record low. Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson mentioned that it may due to the pro-arrest policy of local law enforcement agencies and the issuing of protective orders by the courts in every case.

On the flip side, the report also cites a troubling trend of vast under-reporting of non-lethal domestic violence by the county’s Asian communities. The death review committee revealed that over the past two decades, 27 percent of the domestic violence homicides were in the Asian community, yet only 5 percent of the 2012-13 felony domestic violations involved Asians.

As a possible solution, the committee recommended increased outreach in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi and Tagalog.
In addition, a news conference Friday in East San Jose, District Attorney Jeff Rosen encouraged Asian victims and witnesses to step forward and report the abuse to authorities.