For the past three years, Kingston has served as a proving ground for a cutting-edge initiative aimed at preventing domestic violence using “focused deterrence.”
Now, armed with data showing its effectiveness, District Attorney Dave Clegg said this week he wants to take the “Intimate Partner Violence Intervention” [IPVI] program countywide.
“We know right now in Kingston that [IPVI] is having some success,” said Clegg. “It just makes sense from a prevention standpoint and it makes sense from a community justice standpoint.”
The IPVI program is based on the work of criminologist David Kennedy. In the 1990s, Kennedy designed a program to address youth gun violence in Boston that was later credited with a sharp decrease in shootings. Kennedy would go on to found the National Network of Safe Communities, based at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The group has designed further initiatives targeting open-air drug markets and prison violence, as well as domestic abuse. The network’s approach stresses focused deterrence — the concentration of law enforcement and other community resources on small groups of chronic offenders who are the main drivers of crime. The approach combines offers of help for those who want to change their ways, coupled with clear consistent messages of the consequences if they do not.
“The big picture is focused deterrence,” said Rachel Teicher, who spearheads the National Network of Safe Communities’ IPVI program. “How do your prevent, how do you deter someone from re-offending.”
IPVI came to Kingston in 2017 with support from former district attorney Holley Carnright. The program had shown promise in a test run in High Point, N.C.; officials at the state Department of Criminal Justice Services were eager to launch a pilot program in New York. In January 2017, the initiative began assembling a team led by senior assistant district attorney and veteran domestic violence prosecutor Elizabeth Culmone-Mills. In addition to the District Attorney’s Office, the effort includes the Kingston Police Department, the county’s probation and crime victims assistance programs, state parole officials, the county Family and Child Advocacy Center and the nonprofit social services agency Family of Woodstock. The program began in March 2018.
The heart of the IPVI program is a four-tiered classification system for offenders. Each tier comes with a set of interventions, ranging from a warning letter or an in-person visit from a detective to a coordinated legal effort to take the offender off the street through aggressive prosecution or revocation of parole or probation. Classification is handled by a KPD supervisor who assigns suspects to a tier, based on information received from patrol officers.
At the bottom of the scale are Level D offenders. Suspects are assigned a “D” designation when officers suspect intimate partner violence and are able to identify a “primary aggressor,” but do not have enough evidence to file a criminal charge. In such cases, the suspected offender will receive a visit from a specially trained officer who will deliver a “message of deterrence” and explain how the IPVI program works. The suspect will be entered into police records management systems and their status will be flagged whenever they have further contact with police.
Offenders “graduate” to higher levels in the program with each new offense. Offenders may also be placed into a higher category immediately if they decline to cooperate, are deemed a “clear and present danger” or commit a particularly serious offense. When offenders reach Level A, the IPVI coordinating team meets to determine the fastest and most effective way to prosecute them.
At each level, offenders are presented with clear warnings in plain language about what will happen if they do not change their behavior. Both offenders and victims also get offers of help such as substance abuse treatment and anger management programs. IPVI does not give offenders a break on pending charges — they may still be prosecuted anytime there is evidence of a criminal act.
“They receive the message that this is not acceptable behavior and this is what will happen if they continue to offend,” said Culmone-Mills. “They can’t say they weren’t warned.”
Supporters of the IPVI say that it represents a shift in traditional means of combating domestic violence which place the onus of safety and security on victims who are expected to break off relationships and find new homes. The IPVI, by contrast, is tightly focused on getting offenders to change their behavior.
“It really means a shift in how you think about things,” said Teicher. “That’s the biggest challenge, because the criminal justice system often is not a position to prevent or deter something.”
Two years after the IPVI program rolled out in Kingston, backers of the program believe it is beginning to show results. Teicher admitted that it’s difficult to demonstrate relatively short-term impacts, in part because prior to IPVI implementation, crime data did not always distinguish between intimate partner violence and the more general category of domestic violence, and there is no national standard to define intimate partner violence recidivism.
In the two years since implementation, however, recidivism rates for intimate partner violence in Kingston average 23 percent. Nationwide studies, by contrast, commonly show a recidivism rate between 50 and 60 percent. Data also shows a 38 percent decrease in “Domestic Incident Reports” — standardized forms that police officers must file anytime they suspect domestic violence — filed in Kingston since the IPVI went into effect. The findings, Teicher said track with the program’s implementation in North Carolina and are, she said, “statistically significant.”
Clegg said the IPVI is a good fit with his vision for modern, forward-thinking DA’s focused on prevention and deterrence. Clegg said he hoped to implement the program countywide. Clegg, however, did not give a timeline for a countywide program. A countywide rollout, he said, would require additional funding as well as training for every police agency operating locally. Clegg said his office was also focused on clearing a backlog of cases and implementing new rules of evidence that estimated had increased its workload by 30 percent.
“It’s a big job,” said Clegg. “But once we get through it, we will be looking at new policies and new approaches.”
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