I am proud to announce that the Attorney General's 2008 Annual Report on
Domestic and Sexual Violence was filed with the General Assembly on
December 31, 2008. An electronic copy of the Report is available for
review and downloading on the General Assembly website at
http://leg2.state.va.us/dls/h&sdocs.nsf/By+Year/RD4582008/$file/RD458.pd
f

Corie

Corie E. Tillman Wolf
Assistant Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
900 E. Main Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
(804) 786-9593
(804) 371-0151 facsimile
cwolf@...

The Executive Summary and Table of Contents are in text form below.

Executive Summary
On a daily basis, domestic and sexual violence confront our
citizens and our communities. In 2007 alone, 25% of all homicides were
related to domestic and intimate partner violence; 5,009 forcible sex
offenses and 22,515 incidents of assault and battery against a family or
household member were reported to law enforcement; 29,934 emergency
protective orders for family abuse incidents were issued by magistrates;
and 6,436 men, women, and children stayed in domestic violence shelters.
In 2008, lawmakers, agencies, and organizations continued their
efforts on the state and local level to combat domestic and sexual
violence in the Commonwealth.
The Virginia General Assembly enacted important legislation to
assist victims of sexual and domestic violence. Among the significant
changes to Virginia law were: eliminating the defense of marriage in
statutory rape cases, allowing victims of sexual assaults to undergo
forensic examinations without requiring their participation in the
criminal justice system, preventing polygraph testing of victims as a
precondition to investigation or prosecution of sexual assault cases,
expediting entry of protective orders into the Virginia Criminal
Information Network (VCIN), expanding the pilot Address Confidentiality
Program, requiring retention of court records for misdemeanor
convictions of assault and battery against a family or household member
and violation of a protective order for 20 years, and requiring law
enforcement agencies to develop policies and procedures for domestic
violence arrests and responding to sexual assault incidents.
Agencies and organizations continued their efforts to provide
tools and resources to prosecutors, law enforcement, victim advocates,
health care providers, social service providers, and allied
professionals. State, local and private partners also continued to
promote public awareness and prevention initiatives, as well as support
collaborative efforts among agencies and organizations to enhance the
overall response to domestic and sexual violence.
State and local agencies and organizations collected data on
domestic violence-related fatalities, domestic and sexual abuse,
protective orders, and services to victims and children in order to
assist in providing a broader picture of these issues that confront our
communities. A great deal of the information collected by local and
state medical examiners, law enforcement agencies, domestic and sexual
violence service providers, and grant programs is included in this
year's Report.
State and local agencies also worked collaboratively on existing
as well as new initiatives to improve the response to domestic and
sexual violence at all levels. The Governor's Commission on Sexual
Violence brought together legislators and representatives from state
agencies, the court system, programs and organizations, and local sexual
assault crisis centers to develop and recommend ways to strengthen
Virginia law. As a result of the collaborative work and recommendations
of the Commission, several important bills which enhance protection for
victims of sexual assault were enacted into law during the 2008 Session
of the General Assembly.
Additionally, the Virginia Partnership to Encourage Arrest
Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders (GEAP), a partnership of
five state agencies and one statewide nonprofit organization, continued
its efforts to provide intensive training and technical assistance, at
the state and local level, to promote practices that enhance victim
safety and offender accountability. The GEAP partnership sponsored a
number of domestic violence training events for law enforcement,
prosecutors, fatality review teams, advocates, and court personnel. The
GEAP partnership also worked with community stakeholders in thirteen
localities to assess their local responses to domestic violence.
As further example of public-private collaboration, in October
2008, the Attorney General launched "Safe in Our Communities: Community
Recognition Program for Promising Practices in Domestic Violence
Response." This Program was developed with input from several state
agencies and organizations and is supported by Verizon Wireless. The
Program recognizes localities for their innovative and promising
practices to combat domestic violence. Selected communities will
receive formal recognition from the Attorney General, as well as
monetary awards from the Verizon Wireless HopeLine Program.
The Office of Family Violence (OFV) in the Department of Social
Services (DSS) coordinates the Domestic Violence Action Team (DVAT), a
multidisciplinary team of state and local domestic violence
stakeholders. The Team focuses on the statewide response to victims of
domestic violence. In 2008, DVAT addressed the need for greater
collaboration between local domestic violence programs and local
departments of social services, particularly with regard to the issue of
elder abuse and the service needs of elderly victims. As a result, a
successful training curriculum is being modified to address the specific
needs of elderly victims.
Despite continued progress by many agencies and organizations in
addressing domestic and sexual violence issues, it is important to note
that a number of state and local programs and initiatives have been
curtailed in the past year due to continued reduction in federal funding
for domestic and sexual violence programs across the country. In 2008,
federal funding from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which supports
domestic and sexual violence programs as well as victim-witness
programs, was reduced drastically by 17%, representing the lowest amount
of VOCA funding distributed to Virginia in more than eight years. The
amount of federal funds available to all states through the
Services*Training*Officers*Prosecutors (STOP) Violence
Against Women Formula Grant Program (STOP Program) from the Office on
Violence Against Women (OVW) also decreased in FY 2008. Except for a
slight increase in STOP Program funding predicted for FY 2009, these
funds have decreased steadily since FY 2000. Consequently, the pool of
funding available to state and local domestic and sexual violence
programs, shelters, victim-witness programs, law enforcement agencies,
and Commonwealth's Attorneys' offices has decreased. As a result, there
has been a reduction in services to victims and their children. There
also has been a reduction in intervention and treatment services for
perpetrators, as well as a reduction in training and technical services
available to local law
enforcement agencies.
In light of the funding challenges faced by all levels of
government, we must work together to find innovative ways of addressing
the needs of victims, families, and communities touched by domestic and
sexual violence. As we enter 2009, we must continue to support the
efforts of agencies and programs across the Commonwealth to ensure that
the most efficient and effective system is available to combat domestic
and sexual violence in our Commonwealth.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Attorney General's Message i
Executive Summary ii
Domestic and Sexual Violence in Virginia 1
Domestic and Sexual Violence Offenses 2
Services to Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence 7
Services to Children Exposed to Domestic Violence 8
Funding Sources and Grant Programs 10
Agency Efforts and Initiatives 18
Collaborative Efforts 36
2008 Legislative Update 39
Future Recommendations 42
Appendix A - Data A-1
Appendix B - Domestic Violence Resources B-1
State Agencies and Organizations B-1
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Crisis Programs By Locality B-2
Certified Batterer Intervention Programs B-17
Fatality Review Teams B-19
Additional Resources B-20