Institute Gathers Domestic Violence Data for Dallas Task Force

UT Dallas researchers are contributing an important new tool in the City of Dallas’ campaign to end domestic violence: data. 

The Institute for Urban Policy Research (IUPR), a research group in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS), completed a 30-page report for the Dallas Domestic Violence Taskforce that provides a detailed snapshot of the city’s response to the problem. 

The report details the number of domestic violence homicides, offenses, court cases and people turned away from emergency shelters between June 2014 and May 2015, in addition to other statistics. 

Dr. Denise Paquette Boots, associate professor of criminology and senior research fellow with the IUPR, and Dr. Timothy Bray, clinical professor of criminology and director of IUPR, researched and wrote the report. Boots also serves on the city’s domestic violence task force. 

At an Oct. 21 event to announce the report, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said that the data is critical in the city’s effort to end domestic violence. He said the report and future annual updates will serve as benchmarks for the city to measure progress and determine whether its strategies to protect victims are working. 

“I have long felt that we will not be able to accomplish our goal of eradicating domestic violence in our city unless we develop a statistical dashboard to hold all stakeholders accountable,” Rawlings said. “This report, and the statistical snapshot that it provides, is a key milestone because it is the first step toward making a comprehensive dashboard a reality.” 

Boots worked for more than 18 months to capture metrics from key partners that provide a portrait of domestic violence in Dallas. The findings include:

• 10 family violence murder cases involving intimate partner homicides
• 11,047 domestic violence-related offenses reported to Dallas Police Department
• 3,833 cases filed for prosecution
• 7,567 men, women and children turned away from shelters due to lack of capacity 

“This first annual summary report for the Dallas Domestic Violence Taskforce is an important step in gauging our community’s response to domestic violence,” Boots said. “It ushers in a new era of open cooperation between our partners across the public and private sectors in tackling this critical social issue.” 

The institute released the report as part of an event to commemorate its 10th anniversary and to welcome the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership conference. 

“Projects like the DV Taskforce annual report represent an opportunity for the University community to provide support and expertise to help fight pressing social problems that impact the health of our community,” Bray said. 

“This ideal has been the primary focus of IUPR since our inception over 10 years ago. This event brought together elected officials, nonprofit and civic leaders and researchers who share a common interest in improving the quality of life of our families and neighborhoods in Dallas.”