Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Article: Homicides fall among intimate partners in New York

ALBANY — Intimate-partner homicides in New York dropped 19 percent last year, with 73 deaths compared to 90 each in 2008 and 2009, according to a report released Monday from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Consistent with other years, most of the victims in 2010 were women — 62 females compared to 11 males, the agency's fourth-annual report found. Intimate-partner murders involve spouses, ex-spouses and current or former sexual partners, including homosexual couples. They are the most common form of domestic homicide.

But the total number of domestic homicides, which includes those committed by other family members, increased 10 percent to 144.


There were 862 homicides reported statewide in 2010 — 536, or 62 percent, in New York City and 326, or 38 percent, in the rest of the state.

That's up 10.2 percent from 2009, when there were 782 statewide.


Of the 796 murders of people ages 16 and older, 655 victims were male and 141 were women. The victims were black in half of the 144 domestic homicides, white in 34 percent and Hispanic in 13.2 percent.

"For the second year in a row, 44 percent of all women killed in New York state were killed by an intimate partner," said Sean Byrne, acting commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services. "That means that the least safe place for a woman in New York state is her own home and that the person most likely to kill that woman is a loved one."

Intimate-partner homicides typically are preceded by other controlling and violent acts, said Amy Barasch, executive director of the state Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence.

Six of the nine domestic-homicide incidents with more than one victim involved children under 18 who were killed by a parent or the parent's intimate partner, the report said.

Bryan Ashline of Watervliet, Albany County, is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Trieste R. Clayton, and their infant son, Xavier Michael Ashline, in Bath, Steuben County, on Father's Day last year. He is awaiting trial.

The baby was one of 37 children who were domestic-homicide victims in 2010, up from 17 in 2009, the state found.

Monroe County's eight domestic homicides in 2010 included 7-year-old Hunter Resch. Hunter was fatally shot Feb. 12 by his father Mark Resch, 39, of Greece, who then turned the gun on himself.

More than half of all domestic violence isn't reported to law enforcement, but it may get reported to the health and court systems, she said.

Barasch's agency has a dashboard feature on its website, opdv.state.ny.us, that provides data from police and other agencies. For example, the number of public-assistance applicants who indicated danger connected with domestic violence was 15,119 in 2010, 28 percent lower than in 2009 but 2 percent higher than in 2007.

The dashboard and agency's annual report "have become vital tools for programs and advocates, giving them a broader picture of not only what's happened in their community but across the state," Michele McKeon, CEO of the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said in a statement.

The state has expanded screening for domestic violence in its drug-treatment programs and increased training for police officers. Its Division of Parole launched an alert system to flag parolees who have been convicted of domestic-violence crimes, have orders of protection against them or are subject to specific conditions.

The number of domestic-violence cases handled by the court system and local probation departments is on the rise, state statistics show.


In 2010, probation officers handled 5,260 domestic-violence related cases in 2010, 8 percent higher than the 4,882 in 2009.

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