Improving response to domestic violence in Minnesota

How the Minneapolis Police Department responds to domestic violence cases puts survivors at risk and doesn’t hold abusers accountable. 

That’s according to a recently published report by Global Rights for Women, a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis that works toward helping women and girls around the world live free from gender-based violence and attain equal rights.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with the author of the report about the gaps in police officer response to domestic violence cases, including that police officers often didn’t attempt to locate abusers if they fled the scene before the officers arrived, leaving the victim vulnerable to future violence. 

Also, the head of an anti-violence organization in Duluth joins us to discuss how the “Duluth model” became the most common intervention program for domestic abuse in the United States and what makes it work. 

Resources:

• National Domestic Violence Hotline by phone, text or online chat at 1-800-799-7233

• Minnesota Day One has a crisis hotline and shelter services: 1-866-223-1111

Guests: 

• Melissa Scaia is the director of international training at Global Rights for Women, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization working to end gender-based violence against women and girls. Global Rights for Women recently put out a report looking at gaps in how the Minneapolis Police Department responds to domestic violence cases. 

• Scott Miller is the executive director of Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs in Duluth. The intervention programs use the “Duluth model” to address domestic violence — an approach invented in Duluth, and used all around the United States, where the survivor’s experience is centered. 

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.