1,074 cases. No victim deaths. What a domestic violence team in Milwaukee learned last year
Milwaukee County's interagency team dedicated to preventing domestic violence homicides is effective — but it can only help victims it knows about.
The Milwaukee County Domestic Violence High Risk Team, coordinated by the Sojourner Family Peace Center, took on more than 1,000 cases last year.
None of those victims were killed, a new report found.
Still, domestic and intimate partner violence continues to be a driver of violence in the county. About 50 people died in domestic violence-related incidents last year. Most of those victims had not reached out for help, either from local law enforcement or from Sojourner, according to the report.
"So many of them were unconnected," said Erin Schubert, Sojourner’s director of outcomes and evaluation, and the report's lead author, in an interview last month.
In-depth coverage: Domestic violence deaths are rising. Children are witnessing them. Inside the crisis facing Milwaukee County.
The team tries to prevent homicides by holding offenders accountable and protecting victims. It’s a collaboration among Sojourner, Milwaukee and suburban police agencies, prosecutors, the Department of Corrections, the Alma Center and other service providers.
From 2017 through 2022, the team took on more than 4,100 cases. Only one ended in a homicide. In the past year, the team received a $1 million grant from the state and more police officers dedicated to it so it could review cases daily.
Here are key takeaways from the report:
The team took on 1,074 cases in 2022
Last year, the team staffed 1,074 cases, which worked out to an average of about 20 cases per week, a 30% increase from 2021.
Victims are screened in based on a weighted score from the Lethality Assessment Protocol, a questionnaire used by all 14 law enforcement agencies in the county. The assessment asks victims about strangulation, past threats to kill a victim, access to a gun and other risk factors.
The team also takes referrals from advocates at other agencies and considers other criteria, including if a gun was used.
No victims died, but two offenders did
No victims on the team's caseload died, but two offenders did. One died by suicide. Another was killed by his victim's father, who was trying to protect the victim from ongoing abuse.
Nearly one in four cases involved people who previously received services from the team
Of the cases, 251 were considered "repeat cases" that involved the same victim or same offender as a previous case.
Among those repeat cases, about 16% involved a repeat couple with the same victim and offender, while 3.4% involved the same victim with a new offender and 4% were repeat offenders with a new victim.
The team accepts cases from the entire county but three city of Milwaukee police districts made up the most cases
Milwaukee Police Districts 3, 4 and 7 accounted for more than half of the team's cases last year. Those districts cover the central, western and northwestern parts of the city.
Those three districts also had the highest number of cases in 2021 and 2020.
The suburban police agency with the highest number of cases last year was West Allis with 29 cases, followed by Oak Creek with 18.
Children were present at 32% of cases reviewed by the team
Sojourner found 32% of incidents — which include shootings, stabbings and other serious crimes — had been witnessed by children.
The data is similar to a finding from a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of homicides related to domestic, intimate partner and family violence.
The news organization found children were present at 43% of the homicides in its dataset of 178 victims over seven years. The figure included cases in which a child was a victim of a homicide or was present when a homicide occurred.
Black women suffer the heaviest burden of severe, lethal domestic violence
Victims in the team's cases were overwhelmingly women. Black individuals were over-represented in the team's caseload, making up about 73% of victims and 78% of offenders.
This mirrors "other disconcerting social inequities stemming from historical and structural racism," the report notes.
Nearly one in five offenders were on extended supervision
Nearly 20% of offenders in the team's caseload were on court-ordered extended supervision at the time of the incident, while about 48% of offenders had been on some supervision at some point previously.
Of the offenders on supervision either currently or in the past, 43% were on supervision for a crime related to domestic violence.
Prosecutors charged offenders in one-third of the team's cases
The report provided data on arrests, charges and convictions:
An offender was arrested in 44% of cases last year.
Prosecutors charged offenders in 32.5% of the team's cases. Of those, about half were still pending in the court system at the time of the report's data collection this summer.
At that time, less than 10% of all offenders from the team's cases last year had been charged and convicted of a domestic violence-related crime.
The share of cases leading to criminal charges has dropped
The share of the team's cases that resulted in criminal charges dropped from a high of 46% in 2020 to 32.5% last year, which was partly attributed to pandemic-caused backlogs at the courthouse.
That rate is still higher than the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office's overall charging rate for domestic violence-related cases, which dropped from about 32% in 2019 to about 19% in 2022.
The report recommends prosecution and "speedy resolution" of the team's cases that have a particularly high risk of lethality.
"Not every case is appropriate for criminal prosecution," the report notes. "For instance, prosecution can aggravate offender behavior and put victims at risk in some cases."
Report recommends more outreach to victims and services for children
Victims of deadly domestic violence last year "were largely isolated and unconnected," the report says.
The report calls for more outreach so victims know about resources across the city and county, beyond Sojourner and law enforcement. It also puts an emphasis on partnerships with youth-serving organizations so children who witness domestic violence have resources and healing opportunities.
Where to find help for domestic violence
Domestic violence advocates can help with safety planning. Calls to advocates are confidential and do not involve law enforcement.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.
The Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee operates a 24-hour confidential hotline at 414-933-2722.
We Are Here Milwaukee provides information on culturally specific organizations at weareheremke.org.
The Women’s Center in Waukesha has a 24-hour hotline at 262-542-3828.
The Asha Project, which provides culturally specific services for African American women and others in Milwaukee, provides a crisis line from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 414-252-0075.
The UMOS Latina Resource Center in Milwaukee offers bilingual, bicultural domestic violence, sexual assault and anti-human trafficking supportive services and operates a 24-hour hotline at 414-389-6510.
The Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center offers culturally sensitive, trauma-informed services for those who have experienced domestic or sexual violence and can be reached at 414-383-9526.
Our Peaceful Home, which serves Muslim families and is a program of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, operates a crisis line at 414-727-1090.
The Hmong American Women’s Association, which serves the Hmong and Southeast Asian community, has advocates available at 414-930-9352 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin has a statewide directory of resources at endabusewi.org/get-help.
Need more help with crime and safety questions? The Milwaukee Resource Guide is here to help. Have something you want answered? Submit a question.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee team focused on high-risk domestic violence sees results
