Millions in Funding Goes to Fight against Dating Violence

The Nashville Young Women's Christian Association and YWCA Knoxville are two of the 20 organizations that will receive funding to help prevent dating and domestic violence. According to a news report in Yuma News Now, the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women announced that it is giving out $12.6 million dollars in grants to build a comprehensive approach to dating and domestic violence.

Recipients of the grants can create prevention programs and provide services for victims. The organizations involved are also going to partner with schools to inform young men about how to stop violence against women. According to the report, the new program will involve new strategies to prevent domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking, as well as dating violence.

New research has found that a high number of teens and young adults are victims of domestic violence. About one out of 10 high school students were physically hurt, on purpose, by someone they were dating in the year 2011.

Tennessee has the highest rates of domestic violence in the country. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, domestic violence offenses made up 52.1 percent of all crimes against persons in Tennessee in the year 2011.

There were 84,517 reported domestic violence offenses in Tennessee that year when combining instances of murder, assault, intimidation, rape, sodomy, stalking, sexual assault, fondling, incest, statutory rape, and kidnapping. Clearly, dating violence is a serious issue in Tennessee because the most common relationship between domestic violence offenders and their alleged victims was boyfriend/girlfriend, followed by spouse, child, and other family member.

Although these crimes must be prevented, wrongfully charging an individual with a violent crime can have serious life-long consequences for him or her. The experienced domestic violence defense attorneys in Knoxville at Baker Associates have a long history of handling abuse and dating violence cases in Tennessee. We know how to fight wrongful allegations and how to negotiate for reduced penalties. If you are facing domestic violence charges in Knoxville, please contact us at (866) 853-2888 for a no-cost consultation.