Fear, panic, distress, unease, dread…just a few words to describe what people feel when they are experiencing intimate partner violence, let alone the million other words they feel when they have to report what is happening to them.
On July 1, the Utah State Legislature put into place a protocol that is being promoted by the DOVE Center. The purpose of this protocol is to allow those with intimate partners to get the help they need and more importantly, to get the help they need before they have potentially life-threatening things happen to them.
Whether it be a male or a female, this protocol is available to everyone. The estimated statistics for reported intimate violence cases at Utah Tech University alone are roughly 721 men and 2,371 women.
English professor Susan Ertel said: “No one thinks sexual assault or intimate partner violence can happen to them, but the statistics say otherwise: one in three women in Utah; one in seven men in Utah. Those are just the reported cases.”
The Intimate Partner Violence assessment is a five-minute questionnaire. After it is submitted, it will then be sent over to an officer according to your local agency. If there is any additional information known about the persons involved, the agency will gather it and add it to the file. The officer will then take that information and decide what the next steps are. There are efforts that are being put forward for a mobile device version to allow the officers to act accordingly without the need for internet service.
Agencies are having new training procedures to go with this new assessment. With extensive pages on the protocol as well as videos, law enforcement teams will be ready for these new developments.
Kelsea McKinley, a sophomore general studies major from Las Vegas, said: “I think having this on the main page of the UT website would be more accessible and easier to find the help people need. It’s hard to find those resources right now.”
There are many things that are not reported on a daily basis or things that people are afraid to speak out about. This protocol will allow those who are afraid the chance to speak out about abusive and violent acts that are happening in intimate relationships, which will result in faster solutions.
The anxiety that is built up with the actual act of violence as well as the feelings of having to report something that is either happening to you or to someone else you know can be scary. This new protocol may help to assist with the level of anxiety that correlates with the issue at hand.
Being able to fill out this assessment may give the public a feeling of security and safety allowing them a way to say what is happening without actually having to speak it out loud at first. This, in turn, has the possibility of increasing the cases that are reported and raising awareness of the commonality of these cases.
“We don’t have many reports submitted to us on-campus housing,” said Seth Gubler, the director of housing and resident life. “I do think not everything is reported. You only know what’s brought forward, and I imagine that there’s situations that happen and no one knows about it, so it would be great if this protocol is just one more resource that could be used.”
