Stand by please.
Across Wisconsin, a record number of people died as a result of domestic violence in
2024, according to an annual report released this month.
End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin reports 110 victims in 2024, up from 85 the year before.
Sixty percent of the homicides happened in urban areas, 40 percent in rural, and firearms
were used in 71 percent of the deaths, with 78 percent of the perpetrators being men.
What is causing the jump in domestic violence, and what to do about it?
We're joined by Monique Minkins, Executive Director of End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin,
and thanks so much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
Well, to that question, what is causing domestic violence to be on the rise?
There are several reasons why, you know, anytime there is an economic downturn, there
is domestic violence because of life stressors.
And so we know that we have been in this, I don't know if you call it a recession or
whatever, but food prices are rising, prices are rising in general, and employment is rising.
And that causes a lot of stress in the family, and so that can be a cause of the rise.
And it's also the fact that programs are underfunded, and we are trying to serve as
many people as we can, and sometimes they are waitlist, or people decide not to pursue
the services.
And so it's a matter of access to services as well as economics that play an important
role in why these numbers are rising.
This is the worst yet.
Yeah.
So as to that funding, according to your report, last year, Federal Victims of Crime Act
funding in Wisconsin, two Wisconsin dropped by 70 percent from 44.5 million to 13 million.
Why is this funding shortfall happening?
The shortfall is happening.
This VOCA is funded through the Crime Victims Fund.
And the Crime Victims Fund is funded from crime fines, and corporate crime is lucrative,
I guess, for the Crime Victims Fund.
As those, as dependent on the administration, let's say, some be regulated, different policies
and so forth, which lessen the amount of the money going into the Crime Victims Fund.
Recently, there was someone who was fined $100 million and that person received a pardon,
and there was another gentleman fined over $400 million and also received a pardon.
And so that means money's not going into the Crime Victims Fund.
And so there was a VOCA fix by President Biden.
It's slowly climbing, and yet with the increase and the rate that the Crime Victims Fund
is regenerating, it's not very helpful.
I know that the legislature recently added money to the fund, and still, it's low.
And $13 million across the state of Wisconsin is really low when you think about how the
old, probably 70 to 80 percent of a program's budget is VOCA funding.
And so there are a lot of things that threaten our funding on both the state and federal level.
Because what could more funding do?
What would it go toward?
Oh my goodness, it would go towards services to victims.
You know, some programs have limited their hours.
They have discontinued some of their services, and they added those services because they
thought they would be really helpful to victims.
And so now those services are no longer available.
Help lines have closed down.
I know once one program, nine staff members, were no longer a part of that program because
of budget cuts.
70 percent of the programs cut services.
And so you can't help but notice that.
Additionally, 80 percent of those programs now have staffing issues.
And since COVID, we have always had staffing issues and they've been compounded.
If you imagine someone worried about whether they'll get paid or not, or having to let
someone go, and then the rest of the staff stand behind and panicking because people
have families, they have rent to pay, they have expenses, life expenses that they need
to cover.
And so it contributes to it.
Harkening back to our last segment in this program and affordable housing, how do housing
needs play into domestic violence response?
How is it this homicide prevention?
That's it.
That's all.
It's housing prevention.
And the majority of homeless women and children are homeless due to domestic violence.
And so we have to understand the role that it plays and how someone leaves and it's
almost a vow of poverty.
And we have to serve each individual according to who they are, realizing that we have to
have many options and that housing is expensive.
And it's hard to get in.
And there are stricter requirements that can sometimes be difficult for people to find
housing.
You know, over the past three years, we've been piloting this housing first program.
We've been seeing excellent results.
And housing first is like a diverging program.
It makes sure that people are getting what they need.
And lots of times it allows them to stay in their home.
And so we are seeing that like the one thing we purchased for someone was a key, $6 for
a key to her to her home, right?
Or we have helped people pay their utility bills because they were behind.
Maybe their partner didn't pay the bill and left them with that bill.
And so we are looking at different methods because housing, like I said, is homicide
prevention.
And people are safer in their home when it's their home and they control who comes
in and out.
You report notes that black women are six times more likely to be killed than white
women.
What do you want to see in response to that and would it mitigate this disparity?
Black women are six times more likely nationally to die of homicide in a state of Wisconsin.
They are 20 times more likely to die of homicide in a state of Wisconsin.
And that's there are several factors, right?
Those are underserved populations.
And Valwa, which is the bill that kind of legitimized the domestic violence for a lot
of people.
It was created.
The way it was created involved the police, it criminalized domestic violence when it
could have been a human issue.
And so there were people when Valwa was being penned, there were black women there, there
were queer women there and people from other underserved populations and their voices
were drowned out.
And so Valwa, domestic violence was criminalized and that involved the police.
The police have a role for some people, but not for everyone.
And we have to recognize that.
We have to respect that and make sure that there are different methods of people accessing
services and not make it tough for creating barriers or criticizing people for the way
they do access those services.
Additionally, I want to share that we are working with the representative Sheila Stoves
to start a missing murder, missing murder of African American women and girls task force.
We are hoping that that will get us to the root of what the problem is.
Talked about 6% nationally, 20 times more likely to die of homicide in Wisconsin.
There are at least 100,000 women and girls missing nationally, black women and girls
missing nationally.
And so I would consider it a fire.
And we need to make sure that we are paying attention to different populations.
This year was the first time we counted where a homicide victim was killed at the hands
of the police.
It was a queer man and this person called for help and what was killed.
And so we have to look at all of these things and make sure that there is understanding
of what it means to work with different populations and realize once again, the police play a
role, but not for everyone.
And for us to try and force people to work with the police is a tragedy and it will not
get us anywhere.
We can't arrest ourselves out of domestic violence.
And for some people, that is not that is not the that's not an option.
And we have to honor that and work with them accordingly.
What can be done to address root causes, do you think?
For women, black women or domestic violence in general, you know, we have to take that
individual approach to domestic violence and once again, consider identity and life experiences.
And wanting to reiterate, police do play a role for some people and not for everyone.
And that must be hard to think that people are afraid of the police, but there are people
who are afraid of the police and don't trust the police.
And we have to honor that that may not be a part of their role to liberation.
And so we have to honor that.
I think about in 2023, in Milwaukee, there were 27 DB homicides.
And Milwaukee has a high risk assessment team.
None of the 27 were on the radar of that high risk team.
And this is the case in large part because they weren't involved with the police.
And so we have to consider all avenues of serving serving victims because people are
individuals with different life experiences.
And of course, we need more funding.
I can't stress that enough.
People are losing.
We have lost a lot of funding and we are seeing the results of that.
We have a TA line and victims are starting to call our TA line when they can't get services
from their local programs.
And we are able to connect them to other programs.
And sometimes they want to know how can they be safe and are in need of moral support
that we are giving them.
And we are seeing a huge increase of calls from victims.
I want to just back up a little bit and unpack the idea that people may not be comfortable
with interacting with police, even as they are victims of domestic violence.
That has to do with not wanting to make a call to involve police that will then bring
the entire family into that.
Well, it has a, there's a lot, right?
They don't want to bring the family into it.
Some apartment buildings that the police come and it's a habit or some reports that
people can have been evicted.
And there is real mistrust.
People want the violence to stop.
They don't want their partners locked up and sometimes their partners get locked up.
And if you are too family household, that's really difficult.
There are also times when the harm doer is killed by the police.
And that's the last thing anyone wants.
And if we think about the rate of black men being killed by police, black and brown men
need of men being killed by the police, we know that the number is high compared to the
populations of those, those communities.
And so we, we have to realize that and take that into consideration where some people
are honestly afraid of the police and don't trust the police.
And forcing them to work with them is not the answer.
And yet we have to face it head on and figure out what the problem is.
We leave it there, Monique Minkins.
Thank you so much.
For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at pbswisconsin.org and
then click on the news tab.
That's our program for tonight.
I'm Frederica Freiberg.
Have a good weekend.