Statement to KPRC 2
By: Barbie Brashear and Amy Smith
The blatant disregard for the safety of the victim in the Aubrey Taylor case is just another concern in the long line of issues relating to how Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is addressed in Harris County. Harris County consistently leads our State in IPV homicides. The Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and our Community Partners have numerous programs in place to assist victims of IPV but without the support of the entire Community and especially all involved within the Criminal Justice System, we will keep leading the State in IPV homicides.
There are many barriers to leaving an abusive situation, one including increased violence and risk for homicide when making the decision to leave. How will the victim be safe from their abuser? For a victim, knowing her offender is in custody gives her the ability to develop and employ a safety plan for when and if the perpetrator is released. This respite has increasingly become even shorter with the bond conditions that are being assigned case after case.
One can only imagine the depth of terror felt by the victim while being held by the offender over several days. The abuse the victim suffered at his hands is unfathomable. While we know an offender is innocent until proven guilty, his previous convictions lead us to believe that he perhaps is not going to follow the law, that committing further violence in the future is more than possible, and our system will not hold him accountable. The intimate partner violence field has tools and knowledge that can be used by criminal justice systems to assess for risk for intimate partner violence and the likelihood of homicide to occur. These tools can be used by law enforcement as well as the judicial response to assist in decision making including the assignment of appropriate bonds – WHY ARE WE NOT USING THEM? Harris County is the 3rd largest county in the United State and we lag far behind in dedicating resources to ensuring that our systems and first responders are using the most up to date tools and technology. Additionally, we lag behind in ensuring that all of our systems are looking at the same information related to cases. What is happening that Judges aren’t looking at the totality of the case or of the history – why is our county not using evidence-based risk assessment tools to make consistent and informed decisions? Assigning bonds should require the use of the most reliable and validated tools that can ensure that these decisions are informed by information rather than personal speculation. In the case at hand, the assigning of a low bond – $1 – sends the message to the alleged offender that acts of violence against a loved one are really no big deal and the system will not be holding you accountable for the violence. The message the victim receives is that her life and the lives of all those suffering from IPV are not important and again, the system will not create a way to hold the person using violence accountable, nor afford her the time to increase her safety.
IPV has deadly consequences that can be seen every day. It is a crime that requires serious and thoughtful actions throughout the responding systems to ensure that victims are believed, supported, and protected. Harris County needs to step up and support victims and not treat the abuse they suffer as a family problem. It is a community problem requiring a coordinated community response.
