Domestic violence as a criminal act passes House
The Domestic Violence Intervention Center disclosed Friday that hundreds of domestic abuse incidents in the Commonwealth remain unrecorded and unreported, leading to the continued occurrence of violence inside the home.
In a report, the Center said that in the past six years, the Department of Public Safety responded to an average of over 300 cases classified as domestic disturbance complaints. In reality, though, it said the number of domestic abuse incidents in the CNMI exceeds 800 cases a year.
The Center disclosed that domestic abuse cases in the CNMI continue to increase, with the number of domestic violence incidents climbing by 34 percent in the January-September 2003 period, compared with the 284 complaints in 2002.
In 2001, the Criminal Division of the Attorney General’s Office received 205 referred cases but only 86 of the accused got jail time. In 2002, the AGO received 135 reports and only 22 resulted in incarceration.
This has prompted anti-domestic abuse advocates to lobby for several months now for the passage of a measure that would provide a mechanism that would differentiate non-domestic violence crimes and those involving domestic violence.
“This legislation is to criminalize domestic violence and to establish a Domestic Violence Criminal Act that would include the crime of stalking to the Commonwealth Criminal Code,” the Center said.
On Friday, the first step toward criminalizing domestic violence garnered majority votes in the 14th CNMI House of Representatives, which passed House Bill 14-5 on first and final reading.
“The [proposed] Act revises current statutes and supplements the Code to add some new provisions, to give our judges the tools to fashion appropriate bail and probation conditions to protect victims from those who abuse them on a long-term basis. It codifies the policy of mandatory arrest, to help break the inter-generational cycle of violence by letting children see police come and take the perpetrator away in handcuffs. It provides new offenses, designed to criminalize unlawful contact, stalking, interference with attempts to report domestic violence crimes, and violating orders of protections,” Rep. Benjamin Seman, who introduced the bill, said.
The measure, if passed into law, would also provide escalating penalties for repeat offenders and requires law enforcement officers to advise and assist victims in providing medical attention and emergency shelter.
Under the proposed measure, added to the existing statute are misdemeanor cases that include interference with domestic violence report, unlawful contact, violation of order protection, duties of law enforcers, notification to victims of domestic violence, mandatory arrest, stalking, course of conduct or repeated acts, bail and conditions of release in domestic violence cases, and mandatory sentencing.
The new measure also amends 6 CMC Section 4113 to prohibit the court from granting suspended imposition of sentence on any defendants convicted of a crime involving domestic violence. Also, the measure provides protection on the confidentiality of communication between the victim and her counselor.
The House Committee on Health and Welfare said that additional funding is necessary for the enforcement purposes, adding that the benefit of ensuring the safety and protection of CNMI residents far outweigh any additional cost to be incurred.
