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New York

State Overview - State Summary - State Projects
Available Reports - Sample Data Collection Forms - Available Data - Links

State Overview

Domestic Violence Legislation:	Yes (SOS Article 6-A, 459-a for a definition of domestic victims) Also see CPL 530.12 for order of protection legislation
NIBRS Status:	Testing
Additional Data Elements	Yes
Law Enforcement DV System:	Incident-based
Service Provider DV System:	Summary
Service Provider SA System:	Summary - Hotline Only

State Summary

The state statute defining domestic violence includes incidents between same-sex partners. The New York State's Division of Criminal Justice Services maintains the NYS Incident-Based Reporting Program; currently, 155 law enforcement agencies submit incident-based data and an additional 50 agencies are testing the system. The New York incident-based program does include elements in addition to what is required by NIBRS; these include:

location (city, town, village) code of incident
station/division/precinct identifier
offense number
incident larceny type
source of drug data
offender ethnic origin
level of injury
victim medical treatment
Offender-Based Tracking System number
NYS ID Number
arrest status
arrestee/charge link
arrest larceny type

The Division provides optional incident and arrest reports for agencies submitting incident-based data. Agencies may use their own forms but must collect all of the required information. In addition to submitting crime reports, agencies are required to submit separate Domestic Incident Reports. Data are published in annual reports and are available upon request.

The New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence keeps track of the number of hotline calls received but does not collect individual statistics. The information that is collected is shared with the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, which provides resources to the public but does not collect additional information. The New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault provide technical assistance to local sexual assault service providers but do not collect victim or service data. The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault does not routinely collect sexual assault data but is involved in several New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence related research projects, detailed below.

The New York State Office of Children and Family Services collects aggregate data monthly from all domestic violence service providers in the state. Data are published in its annual report. The New York State Office of Victim Services tracks the number of claims paid during the reporting period by type of crime, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking, as well as the number sexual assault examination claims. The information is used only for grant purposes and is not provided in reports.

State Projects

Testing the Efficacy of Judicial Monitoring: A Randomized Trial at the Rochester Domestic Violence Courts
While judicial monitoring has been shown to be effective with other criminal justice populations, few studies, and none involving a randomized control design, have been conducted with domestic violence offenders. This study will fill this gap through a randomized trial to determine the efficacy of a carefully designed, robust model of judicial monitoring. In addition to examining the impact of monitoring on official recidivism and victim reports of re-abuse, the study will also examine the impact on intervening offender perceptions regarding the swiftness, certainty, and severity of further sanctions in response to violations of the court's orders.

Improving Services for Women with Disabilities Who Are Abused: A Collaborative Project
The New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence is partnering with the Center for Disability Rights and the Empire Justice Center (formerly known as the Greater Upstate Law Project) to improve services for women with disabilities who are abused. The Grant to End Violence Against Women with Disabilities is an exciting and unique statewide initiative that allows the three organizations to help create an informed, educated, and interconnected community of domestic violence and disability rights advocates in New York State who provide services to women with disabilities who are abused. The overall goal of the project is to reduce or eliminate the physical, programmatic, and attitudinal barriers that hinder women with disabilities' access to, and utilization of, essential crisis and support services. With this in mind, this collaborative project will:

provide technical assistance and education
develop a series of cross-trainings for domestic violence and disability advocates
create a comprehensive training curriculum and resource materials
develop a comprehensive self-assessment tool to assist domestic violence shelters and programs in evaluating their architectural and programmatic accessibility
establish a Listserv for the exchange of information, ideas, and resources among domestic violence program advocates, disability-related service organizations, and service providers for the deaf.

New York State Probation Domestic Violence Intervention Project
The NYS Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives (DPCA) collaborated with the NYS Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence to implement a joint project designed to assist local probation departments in providing a more consistent legal system response to abused women and domestic violence offenders, promote collaboration within communities and across agencies, and foster relationships with local domestic violence advocates. Originally developed under a U.S Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women, Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program, DPCA's statewide network of Probation Domestic Violence Liaisons from each county probation department and a Domestic Violence Workgroup continue to function as advisors in the design and implementation of model policies, procedures and protocols in response to domestic violence.

New York State Victim Assistance Academy
The New York State Victim Assistance Academy, sponsored by the NYS Coalition Against Sexual Assault, is an interdisciplinary, academically-based learning experience for crime victim service providers, advocates, and allied professionals. It provides a foundation in the principles and policies of victims' rights work and a comprehensive set of skills, knowledge, and resources to enable service providers to better meet the short- and long-term needs of crime victims in New York State.

Spas for Survivors
The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault is partnering with The Enterprising Kitchen to allow the public to donate spa baskets to survivors of sexual assault.

President's Family Justice Center Initiative
The PFJCI, administered by the Office on Violence Against Women, has provided grants to establish comprehensive domestic violence victim service and support centers. The goal of the PFJCI is to make a victim's search for help and justice more efficient and effective by bringing professionals who provide an array of government and community services together under one roof. New York now has centers in Erie, Orange and Westchester counties and the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

Available Reports

General Crime

Division of Criminal Justice Services. (Annual). Crime and justice annual report.
New York State Crime Victims Board. (Annual). Annual report.

Domestic Violence

New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. (Annual). New York State domestic violence dashboard project.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services. (Annual). The Domestic Violence Prevention Act: Annual report to the Governor and Legislature.
Cissner, A. B. (2009). Evaluating the Mentors in Violence Prevention Program: Preventing gender violence on a college campus. Center for Court Innovation.
Fetzer, M. (2009). Domestic violence victimizations in IBR jurisdictions of New York State, 2007. Office of Justice Research & Performance, Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Fernandez-Lanier, A. and Gilmer, J. A. (2008). Domestic homicide in New York State, 2007. Office of Justice Research & Performance, Division of Criminal Justice Services.
National Network to End Domestic Violence. (2008). Domestic violence counts 07: Executive summary for New York.
New York State Committee for the Coordination of Police Services to the Elderly. (2008). 2008 annual report. New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
National Network to End Domestic Violence. (2007). Domestic violence counts: Executive summary for New York.
Chard-Wierschem, D. J. and Mackey, M. (2006). Domestic violence in serious incident/fatality reviews in New York State. Division of Criminal Justice Services Office of Strategic Planning.
O'Sullivan, C. S., King, L. A., Levin-Russell, K., and Horowitz, E. (2006). Supervised and unsupervised parental access in domestic violence cases: Court orders and consequences. NCJ 213712. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
Wolf, R. V., Aldrich, L., and Moore, S. (2004). Planning a domestic violence court: The New York State experience. Center for Court Innovation.
Davis, R. C. and Maxwell, C. D. (2003). Preventing repeat incidents of family violence: A reanalysis of data from three field tests. NCJ 200608. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
Hale, M. M. (2003). Clinton County Domestic Abuse Reduction Team (DART). NCJ 201880. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
Fernandez-Lanier, A., Chard-Wierschem, D. J., and Hall, D. (2002). Comparison of domestic violence reporting and arrest rates in New York State: Analysis of the 1997 and 2000 domestic incident statistical databases. Division of Criminal Justice Services Office of Strategic Planning.
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. (2002). Lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual domestic violence in New York, 2001.
Newmark, L., Rempel, M., Diffily, K., and Kane, K. M. (2002). Specialized felony domestic violence courts: Lessons on implementation and impacts from the Kings County experience. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. NCJ 191861.
O'Sullivan, C. (2002). Domestic violence, visitations and custody decisions in New York family courts. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. NCJ 195792.
Universal Response to Domestic Violence. (2002). Duchess County domestic violence bench manual.
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. (2001). Lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual domestic violence in New York in 2000.
Plattsburgh State University. (2001). Domestic Abuse Reduction Team: Clinton County, New York, final report. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. NCJ 190990.
Taylor, B. G., Davis, R. C., and Maxwell, C. D. (2001). The effects of a group batterer treatment program: A randomized experiment in Brooklyn. Justice Quarterly, 18 (1): 171 - 201.
Davis, R. C., Taylor, B. G., and Maxwell, C. D. (2000). Does batterer treatment reduce violence? A randomized experiment in Brooklyn. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. NCJ 180772.
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. (2000). Lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual (LGTB) domestic violence in New York City.

Sexual Assault

Fry, D., Davidson, L. L., Rickert, V. I., and Lessel, H. (2008). Partners and peers: Sexual and dating violence among NYC youth. New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
Fry, D. (2007). A room of our own: Sexual assault survivors evaluate services. New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
Fry, D. (2007). How safe is New York City: Sexual assault services in emergency departments. New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. (2007). Sexual victimization of youth in New York City.
Davis, R., Guthrie, P., Ross, T., O'Sullivan, C. (2006). Reducing sexual revictimization: A field test with an urban sample. NCJ 216002. US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. (2006). Katrina, natural disasters and sexual violence: Why does rape occur in the aftermath of natural disasters and other humanitarian crises?
Department of Health. (2004). Protocol for the acute care of the adult patient reporting sexual assault.
New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. (2001). The Police Interaction Research Project: A study of the interactions that occur between the police and survivors following a sexual assault.

Sample Data Collection Forms

These are the required domestic and optional incident and arrest forms provided by the Division of Criminal Justice Services to law enforcement agencies in the state:

The Office of Children and Family Services uses a variety of forms to collect summary information from domestic violence service providers, depending on the types of services provided:

The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault uses this survey to evaluate the services available to sexual assault victims:

Emergency Department Enhancement Survey

The Crime Victims Board collects information from victims applying for compensation using this online form:

Claim Application and Instructions

Available Data