Tag Archives: domestic violence

Supreme Court upholds federal ban on firearms for domestic violence offenders

Ruger revolver pistols

Important Takeaways:

  • The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a federal law that prohibits people subjected to domestic violence restraining orders from having firearms
  • The ruling indicates that some longstanding gun laws are likely to survive despite the court’s 2022 decision that expanded gun rights by finding for the first time that there is a right to bear arms outside the home under the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
  • Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that since the United States was founded “our nation’s firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms.”
  • The provision at issue in the case “fits comfortably within this tradition,” he added.
  • In reaching its conclusion, the court did not embrace some of the arguments made by the Biden administration in defense of the law, including that the government can disarm people who are not “responsible.”

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European court tells Russia ‘urgent changes’ needed to curb domestic violence

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled that Russia had not done enough to curb domestic violence and ordered it to pay substantial compensation to four women who were victims of brutal attacks.

Margarita Gracheva, whose husband kidnapped her and chopped off both her hands in 2007 after police dismissed her complaints about his aggressive behavior, is to receive more than 370,000 euros in compensation.

“The Court found, in particular, that the Russian authorities had failed to establish a legal framework to combat domestic violence effectively,” the European Court of Human Rights said in a statement.

The court said it recommended “urgent changes to domestic law and practice to prevent similar violations from occurring.”

The Russian justice ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, President Vladimir Putin signed a law easing penalties for domestic violence, citing a need to reduce state meddling in family life, but rights activists called it a step backwards.

In Russia, domestic violence is a particularly acute problem because patterns of macho male behavior are deeply ingrained and rights groups say the laws protecting women are inadequate.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Ed Osmond)

U.S. to expand work permits for immigrants who are crime victims

By Ted Hesson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A new U.S. immigration policy set to be announced on Monday will expand access to work permits and deportation relief to some immigrants who are crime victims while their visa cases are pending, according to a summary reviewed by Reuters.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will create a process that could allow tens of thousands of applicants for U visas to receive work permits if their claims are deemed to be made in good faith and without the intention of defrauding the immigration system, the summary said.

The United States offers 10,000 U visas annually to immigrants who are victims of certain crimes and who aid law enforcement investigations or prosecutions. The visas provide access to a work permit and the ability to apply for permanent residence after three years, but high demand means applicants currently wait at least five years until they can receive work authorization, according to USCIS.

To qualify for a visa, applicants must be victims of domestic violence, trafficking or other serious crimes.

The number of U visa applicants who will qualify for work permits under the new policy remains unclear.

USCIS is currently considering nearly 269,000 U visa applicants, according to agency data current to December. However, not all of those applicants are in the United States, a USCIS spokesperson told Reuters.

In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the move would both help victims and promote public safety.

“These are individuals who have come forward to help law enforcement keep us all safe, but who are in need of a measure of protection for themselves, as well,” he said.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Kristina Cooke and Jonathan Oatis)

Brazil women suffer in silence as COVID-19 sparks domestic terror

By Pilar Olivares

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – During the early months of Brazil’s COVID-19 pandemic, Rio de Janeiro police detective Fernanda Fernandes was certain that cases of domestic abuse were rising, but there was little she could do about it as few women came forward to file a report.

“Women (were) unable to escape their abusers while stuck at home,” said Fernandes, who runs the Specialized Delegation for Support of Women (DEAM) in Rio’s sprawling Duque de Caxias suburb. The number of complaints has, however, risen as the outbreak has ebbed, and more women have left their homes to lodge complaints with police, she said.

Around the world, police and prosecutors, victim support teams and women’s movements, as well as the United Nations, have reported rising domestic violence during coronavirus-related lockdowns. The pandemic in Brazil has left many couples jobless, adding to domestic tensions, Fernandes said.

The economy slumped 4.1% last year and Brazil’s recovery is likely to remain tepid as the country grapples with a brutal fresh wave of infections.

Brazil recorded 649 femicides during the first half of 2020, according to figures from the Brazilian Forum for Public Safety, up 2% from the same period in 2019. But other crimes against women such as assault and rape, which usually require victims to file a police report, fell during that period, the Forum noted.

“The decrease in the registration of some crimes in this period is more a reflection of the difficulties and obstacles women encountered during the pandemic to report abuse, than a sign of a reduction in cases,” it said in its latest October report.

Fabiana Antunes, a shopkeeper, said that she finally gathered the courage to go to police in May after the latest attack by her abusive former partner, an illustrator whom she met five years ago.

A year into their relationship, he began to drink more, forbade her from seeing friends, and became violent, she said. She left him two years later, but they were still living under the same roof at the onset of the pandemic, when his mood soured.

“The pandemic – the fact of being stuck at home – made everything worse,” she said.

In May, he struck her in the stomach during a fight, Antunes said, and she contacted the police. A judge issued a restraining order against Antunes’ ex-partner, who moved out, according to Fernandes and court documents.

Yet Antunes still worries. Her ex-partner drew sketches which she showed to Reuters – of a woman who looks like her murdered by a man wielding a cleaver.

Aldefran Melo da Silva, her ex-partner, said Antunes had previously been proud to feature in his artistic work. He confirmed the restraining order had been issued but denied wrongdoing.

“We had normal marital discussions, but without any physical or verbal aggression,” he said. “I never hit her.”

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN

Fernandes – whose team in Duque de Caixas handled 4,121 cases of domestic violence in 2019, the most of any DEAM team in Rio state – has held Facebook Live sessions to brief the local community on the need to report signs of domestic abuse.

Part of the challenge, she said, is convincing some women abuse is unacceptable. Others fail to grasp the danger of their situation as they do not believe their partners are capable of killing them.

Taylaine Alves, a 19-year-old mother of two, was severely burned in a 2019 attack and later died in hospital from her injuries. Alves’ boyfriend was charged and is in prison awaiting trial. His lawyer from the public defender’s office declined to comment.

“We mothers never forget,” said Jozilene Pereira Alves. “Life goes on, but a piece of me is dead.”

Brazil introduced tough penalties for domestic abuse in 2006 with the Maria Da Penha law – named after a woman left paraplegic after being shot by her husband in her sleep.

However, it was not until 2015 that Brazil officially recognized femicide as a crime – years after most other countries in the region, including Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Mexico.

Paulo Cesar da Conceicao, who runs a rehabilitation center for men involved in domestic violence, called CR Homem, said most abusers struggle to accept their responsibility, blaming their victims for provoking them.

Conceicao said that, in group sessions, his team guide conversations to help men to see their own responsibility for domestic abuse.

“The men arrive in the group very closed and resistant, and we try to break that down,” he said.

Daniela Gasparin, 38, says she lives in fear of her former partner, who was jailed after attacking her with a knife on a bus in the city of Boituva, in Sao Paulo state. Her ex-boyfriend was arrested and convicted in the case.

“Even if he is in jail, I’m still scared he will get out and come after me,” said Gasparin. “This is a love I cannot understand. How can a person love and also try to kill?”

(Reporting by Pilar Olivares; Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Rosalba O’Brien)

Europe braces for domestic abuse ‘perfect storm’ amid coronavirus lockdown

By Sophie Davies and Emma Batha

BARCELONA/LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Domestic abuse charities in Europe have called for hotels and holiday lets to be turned into refuges as they warned that coronavirus lockdowns would lead to a massive jump in the numbers of women fleeing violence.

Governments, support services and charities are scrambling to help thousands of women facing weeks of isolation at home with a violent partner during quarantine measures.

“It’s a perfect storm,” Suzanne Jacob, chief executive of British charity SafeLives, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Lockdowns will lead to a surge in domestic abuse, but also severely limit the ability of services to help.”

Britain joined Italy, Spain, France and Belgium this week in ordering citizens to stay home to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has killed more than 21,000 worldwide.

As the country shut down, charities urged employers, bank staff, healthworkers and neighbours to be extra vigilant, adding that even a note dropped in a grocery bag could be a lifeline for a woman trapped with an abusive partner.

In Spain, local authorities in the Canary Islands have set up an initiative that enables victims of domestic abuse to go to their pharmacy and request a ‘Mask 19’, a code word that will alert the pharmacist to contact the authorities.

Gender experts say rates of domestic and sexual violence rise when societies are under stress, during natural disasters, food shortages and epidemics – or even when a local football team loses a match.

In China, where the virus first emerged, anecdotal evidence suggests reports of domestic abuse doubled or trebled during its lockdown which began in January. A hashtag translating as #AntiDomesticViolenceDuringEpidemic also went viral.

‘MASSIVE INFLUX’

Countries in Europe said it was too early to say whether cases had gone up.

But domestic abuse survivor Rachel Williams, who is running online support groups in Britain during the crisis, said she had heard of a 30% increase in some countries in lockdown.

“We are going to see a massive influx here, without a shadow of a doubt. The government must look at using hotels, bed and breakfasts and Airbnbs to keep women safe,” she added.

Williams, who was shot by her estranged husband after leaving him following years of abuse, said there were just 4,000 refuge spaces across the country, which saw 19,000 referrals last year.

In Italy – in lockdown since March 9 – refuges and support centres say they are struggling to operate and often lack masks and hand sanitiser for staff.

Coronavirus has killed more than 7,500 people in Italy, by far the worst affected country.

D.i.RE, a network of 80 centres, has asked the government to free up facilities for new domestic abuse cases to prevent them potentially introducing coronavirus into existing refuges.

One centre in the northern Emilia Romagna region is converting a former convent for use. Another in Padua is using holiday lettings site Booking.com to find apartments for women.

Some services in Italy are asking women to provide a negative COVID-19 test in order to access shelters, but tests are not widely available to people without symptoms.

CODED MESSAGES

In France, which went into lockdown last week, Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa has warned that quarantine will be a “breeding ground for violence” with emergency shelter provision a major concern.

France’s national domestic abuse hotline has seen a rise in calls this week, but helplines and charities elsewhere said calls had fallen as it became harder for women to reach out.

“We’re having trouble talking to women by phone as their abusers are on the prowl 24 hours a day,” said abuse survivor Ana Bella Estevez, who runs a support organisation in Seville in southern Spain.

Estevez, who fled her abusive marriage after her husband tried to kill her, said her charity would normally call women when their partners were at work, but was increasingly turning to text-based technology including WhatsApp.

The Spanish government has said it will shortly launch a chat service with geolocation technology enabling victims to contact the police, and another providing psychological support during isolation.

Madrid, Valencia and Andalusia are meanwhile looking to adopt the ‘Mask 19′ initiative, according to media reports.

In Britain, SafeLives said bank staff as well as health workers should watch out for coded messages abuse victims may give out when contacting them.

With many people having lost jobs or income during the crisis, Lloyds Bank – one of Britain’s biggest banks – has sought the charity’s advice on how to spot vulnerable customers.

As people set up new methods of home-working, SafeLives’ CEO Jacob said employers should also think about what their employees’ homelife is like and keep regular contact.

For someone living with a controlling partner a chat with the boss may be one of the few ways they can keep in touch with the outside world.

Jacob also warned that job losses would not only heighten women’s vulnerability to abuse, but could leave them stuck in dangerous relationships long after the crisis is over.

“It’s vital to protect people’s employment and income now to make sure they don’t end up trapped in abusive situations when we get through the other side of this,” she said.

Abuse survivor Williams, who has written about her experiences in a book called “The Devil at Home”, also urged the public to reach out if worried about a neighbour.

“Ask if they need any shopping. That could allow them to write something on their shopping list. Or, if it’s safe to do so, drop a note in the bag when you hand over the shopping,” she said.

“Don’t be a bystander. More so than ever before, domestic abuse is everybody’s business.”

(Additional reporting by Elena Berton in Paris. Writing by Emma Batha @emmabatha; Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

More U.S. children die in mass shootings at home than at school: study

By Brad Brooks

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Three out of four U.S. children and teens killed in mass shootings over the past decade were victims of domestic violence and generally died in their homes, according to a study released on Thursday by the gun control group Everytown.

While the specter of school shootings looms darkly in the minds of American parents who remember massacres in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida, and around the country, the group’s review of shootings from 2009 through 2018 found far more children are killed in their own homes.

“These are not random acts of violence, yet people have the perception that the killings come out of nowhere,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, Everytown’s research director. “That is simply not the truth.”

The Everytown report, based on police and court records, as well as media reports, found that 54% of mass shootings involved the shooter killing a family member or intimate partner.

A total of 1,121 people were killed in 194 mass shootings in the decade examined – one-third of whom were children or teens.

Nearly two-thirds of all mass shootings took place entirely inside homes, the study found.

Burd-Sharps said Everytown hopes that its report helps the public gain more understanding about the statistical realities of mass shootings, which it defines as an incident that kills at least four people, excluding the shooter.

The federal government and other groups set a lower threshold for what constitutes a mass shooting. Those definitions can result in higher totals than Everytown’s count.

Only 1% of the nearly 35,000 gun deaths averaged in the United States each year in the past decade involved mass shootings, but Burd-Sharps said she believes public interest in them can help propel gun-safety legislation that could cut gun deaths across the board.

At the top of Everytown’s wish list is a “red flag” law that would allow family members or law enforcement officers to petition a judge to seize firearms from a person they think is a threat to themselves or others.

The group also believes a comprehensive federal law requiring background checks on all gun sales would quickly be effective in decreasing gun deaths.

The link between domestic violence in mass shootings was seen this week in San Diego, when a man who had a restraining order against him killed his wife and three of their four young sons before taking his own life.

“When you look at all these cases of kids who lost their lives, if some family member had been able to heed the warning signs and temporarily had guns removed from the home, many of those children would still be alive,” Burd-Sharps said.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)

Thousands gather in Madrid to protest violence against women

MADRID (Reuters) – Thousands of protesters gathered in central Madrid on Friday to draw attention to domestic violence in a year when over 40 women have been recorded so far as having been killed by their partner or ex-partners.

Protesters carried banners reading “We don’t want to carry on counting victims” and chanted “We are not alone” as they brandished umbrellas in pouring rain.

The government regularly publishes the number of women killed by partners or ex-partners. The number so far this year is 42, according to government statistics, with more than 1,000 killed since records started in 2003.

Rates of reported partner violence in Spain are amongst the lowest in Europe and Spain ranked as the European Union country with the most visible campaign against domestic violence, according to a 2014 EU survey.

(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; editing by Grant McCool)

U.N. rights expert urges Malaysia to end child marriage

Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir bin Mohamad addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 28, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia should ban child marriage immediately, a United Nations human rights expert said on Monday, stepping into a controversy that has raged since reports in July that a 44-year-old Malaysian man had married an 11-year-old Thai girl.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s government, in power since May, has promised to raise the legal age of marriage to 18, provoking a backlash from some conservative Islamic leaders who argue that early marriage provides an answer to social ills like premarital sex and pregnancies out of wedlock.

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the U.N. special rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, urged Malaysian authorities to protect the rights of minors, particularly young girls.

Married underage girls were at higher risk of domestic violence, and are often denied the chance to pursue an education, she told reporters.

“By marrying them, you are denying these girls their basic human rights,” said de Boer-Buquicchio, who was on an eight-day visit to mostly-Muslim Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the legal minimum age for marriage under civil law for both genders is 18. However, girls can marry at 16 with the permission of their state’s chief minister, while Islamic law sets a 16-year minimum age for girls and allows even earlier marriages with the permission of the sharia court.

The U.N. official called on Malaysia to remove exemptions that allowed underage children to marry, saying “there can be no exceptions.”

More than 5,000 applications for marriages involving minors were made at the sharia court between 2013 and 2017, government statistics show.

But many child marriages remained unreported, particularly among indigenous groups on Borneo, in Malaysia’s east, de Boer-Buquicchio said.

“It is time to be firm,” she said, adding that Malaysia’s government should engage religious and customary leaders on the issue.

“The political will is there, but the question is how you can reach out to all the different entities.”

Last year, Malaysia passed a law on sexual offences against children but did not criminalize child marriage.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Suspect in deadly Florida standoff had stockpiled guns: police

Gary Wayne Lindsey Jr., 35, is seen in this Volusia County Corrections booking photo taken in Florida, U.S., May 8, 2018. Picture taken May 8, 2018. Courtesy Volusia County Corrections/Handout via REUTERS

By Joey Roulette

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – A convicted felon found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Orlando, Florida apartment alongside the bodies of four children after a standoff in which he shot a police officer had stockpiled an arsenal of guns, police said on Tuesday.

Officers who stormed a three-bedroom unit at the Westbrook Apartments on Monday night, nearly a full day after responding to an emergency call, found two rifles, two shotguns and a handgun inside, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a late-afternoon press conference.

Mina said it was still unclear when the four children, two of whom belonged to suspect Gary Wayne Lindsey, 35, were shot to death. Lindsey had also shot and killed himself.

“It is still a very active and ongoing investigation,” Mina said. “We’re trying to gain as much information about him as possible.”

The 21-hour ordeal started shortly before midnight on Sunday when Orlando police responded to a domestic violence call by the suspect’s girlfriend.

Lindsey shot and wounded an officer through the apartment’s front door before barricading himself inside with the four children, aged 1, 6, 10 and 11, as hostages, police said. The standoff ended at about 9 p.m. local time on Monday, when police entered the apartment and found the children and the suspect dead of gunshot wounds.

The police officer shot at the front door was listed in critical condition at a local hospital.

The woman who called the police was the mother of all four of the children, and Lindsey had fathered the two youngest, Orlando police spokeswoman Michelle Guido said in an email.

Lindsey was a convicted felon on probation after pleading no contest to arson and battery charges. In a 2008 incident, Lindsey became violent during an argument with his former fiancee and set the house on fire after the woman fled.

Residents Miguel and Maria Lopez returned early on Tuesday to the Orlando apartment complex after being evacuated the night before.

“I can’t even sleep. I have all the images in my mind, like the police officers, the guns shooting.” Maria said. “I don’t feel safe here.”

(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Orlando; additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Makini Brice in New York; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Frank McGurty and G Crosse)

Family sues retailer for sale of gun used in Texas church massacre

Crosses are seen placed at a memorial in memory of the victims killed in the shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, U.S., November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – The family of a woman and two children killed when a gunman opened fire in a rural Texas church has sued the store that sold the assault rifle used in the deadliest mass murder in the state’s history, lawyers said on Friday.

The lawsuit filed this week in a state district court in San Antonio seeks at least $25 million from Academy Sports Outdoors, accusing it of being negligent in allowing the sale of the Ruger AR-556 used to kill 26 people at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church on Nov. 5.

The retailer was not immediately available for comment and has previously told media it conducted all the required background checks.

The suit was brought by relatives of Joann Ward, who was fatally shot along with her daughters Emily Garcia and Brooke Ward.

The lawsuit claims that when the gunman, Devin Kelley, purchased the weapon in a San Antonio store, he entered an address in Colorado Springs on the federal Firearms Transaction Record form that needs to be completed before a firearm can be sold.

He obtained the weapon in Texas but it should have been sent to his Colorado residence, where he had been stationed with the U.S. Air Force, the lawsuit said.

“The Ruger should have never been placed in Kelley’s hands in Texas,” Houston Attorney Jason Webster, lead attorney on the case, said in a statement.

Kelley had a court-martial conviction for assault, which should have permanently disqualified him from legally obtaining a gun.

But the Air Force has acknowledged it failed to enter Kelley’s 2012 domestic violence offense into a U.S. government database used by licensed gun dealers for conducting background checks on firearms purchasers.

Another family, several of whose members were killed in the shooting, has filed a negligence claim against the U.S. Air Force over its failure to enter the name into the database.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin; Editing by James Dalgleish)