Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 150

Introduced by Senator Gaines

(Coauthors: Senators Anderson, Bates, Block, Hall, and Wieckowski)

June 9, 2016

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 150—Relative to Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 150, as introduced, Gaines. Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

This measure would proclaim the month of October 2016, and each following October, as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, Domestic violence is a significant public health
and safety issue that affects women, men, and children of all racial,
religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups in California; and

WHEREAS, Nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused
by an intimate partner, which means more than 10 million women
and men in the United States are abused each year; and

WHEREAS, Women are four times more likely than men to be
victims of domestic violence with more than 800,000 women being
violently assaulted by an intimate partner between 2002 and 2011
according to United States Department of Justice statistics. Of all
murder-suicides, 72 percent involve an intimate partner and 94
percent of the victims of these crimes are female; and

WHEREAS, California law enforcement agencies received over
150,000 domestic violence-related calls in 2014, including reports
of more than 100 domestic violence-related homicides. There are
more than 20,000 additional phone calls placed each day to
domestic violence hotlines nationwide; and

WHEREAS, A victim is not alone in suffering the impacts of
domestic violence. Studies indicate that children who witness
domestic violence experience long-term consequences, such as
difficulty at school, substance abuse, and serious adult health
problems, as well as an increased risk of becoming a domestic
violence victim or abuser as an adult; and

WHEREAS, Because 75 percent of domestic violence victims
have children at home under the age of 18, the impact of domestic
abuse has both immediate and generational effects. In 2011, nearly
21 percent of children in the United States were exposed to
domestic violence, either as victims or indirectly as witnesses,
illustrating the magnitude of this problem; and

WHEREAS, The cost of domestic violence exceeds $5.8 billion
each year in the United States--$4.1 billion in direct medical and
health care services and nearly $1.8 billion in lost productivity,
which includes approximately 8,000,000 days of work lost by
abused women each year--equivalent to more than 32,000 full-time
jobs; and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence programs in California provide
essential, lifesaving services to nearly 6,000 victims and their
children each day as they flee violence. Overall, state-funded
domestic violence programs provide individual counseling to an
average of nearly 34,000 victims each year; and

WHEREAS, Despite recent reductions in domestic violence
incidents, there is an ongoing need to educate the public about
domestic violence and to provide all victims access to programs
and services; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature recognizes the vital role that all
Californians can play in preventing, and one day ending, domestic
violence; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature recognizes October 2016,
and each following October, as Domestic Violence Awareness
Month; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.