No changes in county domestic violence trends
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

There have been no changes in domestic violence trends in Chesterfield County over the last two years, says the Intimate Partner and Family Violence Fatality Team. The team, which is comprised of representatives from 14 county and community agencies, reported their latest study findings to the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors last week.

Speaking for the group, Sharon Lindsay, domestic violence coordinator, said data has been updated to reflect 17 intimate partner homicides with 25 victims (17 female and 8 male) from 1997-2004.

In 10 of the incidents, the perpetrators killed the victim and then committed suicide. Fourteen of the 17 perpetrators were males. Seven of the victims were children under age 18.

In most of the cases, the perpetrator used a firearm (79 percent), had a history of physical or emotional abuse (71 percent) and criminal activity (59 percent), and had gone through a recent separation (53 percent). In 41 percent of the cases, police had been called for a domestic disturbance previously, and the perpetrator used drugs and/or alcohol and had received mental health services.

Because of the results, the review team has implemented additional education and recommended training for a number of county agencies.

In other board matters:

Matoaca parks

Matoaca Supervisor Renny Humphrey dug in her heels last week to make sure that funds for improving parks in Matoaca District were preserved. A proposal to borrow $305,000 from her district's capital improvement program to fund the purchase of Falling Creek Park-North was shelved when she objected. She blamed "the fifth floor [of the administration building]" where several county executives have their offices.

The board agreed to borrow the money for Falling Creek elsewhere and not dip into funds earmarked for Humphrey's district.