Dunleavy administration launches board to review domestic violence fatalities

Feb. 3—Alaska is starting a domestic violence fatality review team, the state Department of Public Safety announced Tuesday.

The review board will analyze select cases from around Alaska "where an individual is either killed or nearly killed due to domestic violence," the department said in a statement.

Analyzing domestic violence homicides will "see where the gaps are in services that possibly prevented a victim from getting help before it was too late," Department of Public Safety commissioner Amanda Price said. "We need to stop missing even the most subtle signs of domestic violence and make services more readily available whether it is at school, a doctor's appointment, or a law enforcement contact."

The Alaska Statewide Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team will be staffed by representatives of the Office of Victims' Rights, State Medical Examiner Office, Alaska State Troopers, Department of Health and Social Services, UAA Justice Center, Department of Law, the Alaska Native Justice Center and the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, according to the public safety department.

Details about which cases the review board will take on and when the board will begin meeting haven't been worked out yet, said Megan Peters, a spokeswoman for DPS. The plan is for the review board to take a painstaking, holistic look at each case. That might include examining everything from whether a victim had seen a medical doctor, or whether programs to help victims were available in their area or not.

"You don't know what you don't know," she said. "We clearly have a DV issue in the state of Alaska that's long running. There has to be gaps we can address to take even tiny steps forward to fixing the problem."

Alaska has long had one of the highest rates of women killed by men in the nation, according to the Violence Policy Institute. More than half of all female homicide victims nationwide are killed by a current or former male intimate partner, according to research from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last year, as the coronavirus pandemic isolation stretched from weeks to months, calls for help to domestic violence shelters surged. Homicides followed: In late June and early July, five people in Western Alaska died in violent domestic incidents within 10 days.

Reviews won't be open to the public, but the group may publish findings and recommendations, DPS said.

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