For Immediate Release July 31, 2001 LESBIAN & GAY ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECTS RELEASE ANNUAL REPORT ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
New York - The New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (AVP) today released its annual report on domestic violence in lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual (LGTB) relationships. The report contained information on 471 domestic violence victims served and 609 additional domestic violence-related hotline calls received by the agency in 2000. The clients in the cases reported by AVP came from every corner of New York City, but significantly, 14% were from outside the five boroughs.
Of the 471 clients served by AVP, 52% were male and 47% were female (the gender of 1% of AVP's clients was unspecified). Additionally, 91% of the victims served by AVP reported experiencing at least two prior incidents of abuse by their batterer and 30% indicated that they had experienced 10 or more prior (serial) incidents.
In what representatives say is the result of tremendous agency resources spent on outreach, education and advertising around the city in 2000, the demographic breakdown of AVP's clients began to more closely mirror that of the City in 2000: 26% were identified as African-American, 26% were Latino(a) and 26% were white. "While we still have a long way to go, particularly in Asian communities where language and relative isolation continue to present significant barriers, the broad diversity we've reached in our client base among these three categories is exceptional and a testament to the work of the staff and the organization's commitment to serving the entirety of the City's lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and HIV-affected community," said Diane Soto, AVP's new Director of Client Services. "We are doing all we can to expand upon that work in 2001," concluded Soto.
In a closely-watched area for the agency, 53% of AVP's clients chose to not report their abuse to the police in 2000, as opposed to 71% making that decision in 1999. Of those that did opt to report their abuse to the police, 40% rated police response as "courteous" and 29% rated the response as "indifferent."
However, in a continuing trend, 12% of victims said that police were verbally abusive and 2% reported physical abuse by police when seeking assistance. "We are very concerned about the experience of our community and the police," said Theresa Jefferson, AVP's Community-Police Relations Program Coordinator. "We will continue to work closely with the Domestic Violence Unit of the NYPD to ensure that beat cops, who are more often than not the officers first responding to domestic violence calls, are trained to be proficient, sensitive and respectful of our community. We cannot expect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-affected people to continue to increase their level of engagement with the police around domestic violence should they continue to experience abuse by those charged with assisting them," concluded Jefferson.
The New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (AVP) is the nation's largest service agency for victims of domestic violence within the LGTBH communities. For these communities, domestic violence is as serious and complex a problem as it is in the heterosexual population. For over twenty years, AVP has provided counseling and advocacy for thousands of domestic violence victims as well as for survivors of bias crimes, sexual assault, HIV-related violence, and police misconduct. AVP documents incidents of same-sex domestic violence, educates the public about violence against or within our communities, and works to reform public policies impacting all lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, and HIV-affected people. |
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