ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 4, 1996 TAG: 9611040112
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
LAW-ENFORCEMENT officials in Los Angeles are the first in the nation to use a new computer program to help prevent domestic-violence injuries and murders. These crimes are widespread in L.A. as in many other parts of the country.
The computer program collects data that help authorities assess how dangerous a domestic abuser is, and help them determine what action should be taken to protect other members of a household.
Essentially, it's based on the theory that domestic-violence homicide, more than any other kind of homicide, follows a predictable, escalating pattern of behavior. By identifying and heeding warning signs, authorities - police, social workers, the courts and others - can more likely intervene to prevent deaths.
This is a strategy well worth pursuing, with domestic-violence homicides occurring at the rate of one every nine days in the nation now, and with more than a million women filing complaints each year about some kind of abuse by someone in their homes.
If new technology can help flag especially dangerous domestic situations before they reach the crisis state, it's a tool all law-enforcement officials should have.
But a note of caution: Police cannot rely on such data-based profiles alone.
As was seen recently in the case of Richard Jewell, the security guard who became a suspect in connection with the Olympic Games explosion in Atlanta, and was recently told he's no longer a suspect, such profiles - whether fashioned by forensic psychologists or computers - can mislead.
What's more, police shouldn't depend on computer work to the extent that they don't take seriously all domestic-violence complaints.
Law-enforcement officials should by all means welcome the help of profiles and tracking systems, especially since so many domestic-violence cases fall through bureaucratic cracks, with dangerous trends noticed only in retrospect, after it's too late.
But in preventing abuse, there is still no substitute either for early reporting to authorities, or for the kind of intense response that violence warrants no matter where it takes place.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB