LAW CREATES CRIME OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Cape Girardeau County's prosecuting attorney believes a new state law that creates a crime of domestic assault was well-intentioned but makes little sense and won't help curb the crime.

The prosecutor, Morley Swingle, said the law "won't help the prosecution one bit." Swingle said, "It overlooks the real difficulty, which is maintaining the cooperation of the victim to see that the abuser gets punished."

Gov. Mel Carnahan Tuesday signed a bill that creates the crime effective Aug. 28 It allows police to track frequent abusers through creation of a uniform crime reporting system. The system allows state and local law enforcement agencies to share crime statistics with federal authorities more efficiently.

Cape Girardeau police already keep track of every domestic assault reported to authorities. They see noticeable trends in the number of calls reported, said Cpl. Kevin Orr.

"We can pull up a call history and see what we have been there for" when domestic calls are reported to police, he said.

Under the law, repeat offenders face harsher penalties. But in some cases, the new crime and its punishments might aggravate the domestic-violence situation even further, Swingle said.

Orr agreed. "We'll have to see what effect it might have on the victim," he said.

Often victims of assault aren't ready to go into court and testify that a loved one beat them. It's not always a husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend involved in domestic assaults. "It can be a brother or sister or child and parent in those situations too," Orr said.

The law covers not only spousal abuse but unmarried couples in relationships of a "romantic or intimate nature."

With an expanded definition, "there is now the possibility of it being a more serious crime," Orr said. And there are wider ranges of punishment. A person guilty of three or more lesser domestic assaults can go to prison for five to 10 years. Currently, a third-degree domestic assault is a class A misdemeanor punishable by no more than a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

"We know that if it goes unchecked domestic violence will affect countless families and contribute significantly to workplace violence and problems at school," said Rep. Vicky Riback Wilson, D-Columbia, who co-sponsored a bill that led to the law.

Carnahan said homes should be safe havens, not places filled with fear.

Swingle said the bill doesn't eliminate the problem of domestic violence; it just makes abuse of a family member a more serious crime than abuse of a non-related person.

"Why is it worse for a man to break his wife's nose than to break a stranger's in a fight at the gas pump?" he asked.

Increasing the punishment for domestic-violence offenders doesn't accomplish anything either, Swingle said. "I know they wanted to be tough on domestic violence," he said, "but it really hasn't changed anything."

Prosecutors already have a difficult time getting victims to cooperate when it means punishing a relative or loved one, he said. Only half of the time are prosecutors "successful in having them realize that the only way to stop this is for them to come forward and testify," he said.

The law also creates a Missouri Domestic Violence Commission to study the issue. The Department of Public Safety along with the Department of Social Services will establish pilot programs for domestic-violence prevention, intervention and rehabilitation.

A grant program will be established to build, renovate and improve domestic-violence shelters subject to the availability of state funds.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Adult abuse and domestic violence calls reported to Cape Girardeau police:

Year No. calls

1990 149

1991 160

1992 176

1993 205

1994 277

1995 290

1996 279

1997 227

1998 269

1999 215

Source: Cape Girardeau Police Department