A team approach

As your Violence Dismissed series showed, domestic violence is an increasing problem in North Carolina. States that have successfully addressed the issues of domestic violence are those that have developed a "coordinated community response," where law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, social services and other agencies have a common agreement and uniform approach.

Agencies work together, always focused on the victim. Law enforcement officers, once called to the scene and verifying an act of domestic violence has taken place, don't walk away without arresting someone, thereby getting the offender's attention early-on that there's no free ride. Prosecutors prosecute the offender whether or not the wife or partner wants to drop the charges. Penalties are stiffer early-on, and when offenders are referred to anger management classes or mental health treatment, there's follow-up by the appropriate agency to ensure the offender goes. Barriers to getting a restraining order are removed, and once one is awarded it's rigorously enforced, with severe penalties for the offender the first time the order is violated.

Our state's approach is disjointed and largely dependent on local attitudes. We should be ashamed. Societies that want to make a dent in the problem can. More laws are probably not the answer -- enforcing existing laws in a coordinated, victim-oriented way is.

June Brotherton

Apex

Abuse is everywhere

I applaud The N&O for highlighting the problem of domestic violence in your Violence Dismissed series. I wish, however, that the series had not seemed to stereotype the issue as one that affects only working-class families.

The May 20 article described a violent incident between a couple whose home was in danger of foreclosure. Next to this article was the tragic story of an estranged husband who committed triple murder and suicide in "a manufactured home."

The May 18 article related that one victim of domestic violence was so impoverished that she had to steal Slim Jims from a convenience store. The text and photographs made sure the reader knew that all three women profiled in the series lived in trailers.

Domestic violence is not limited to trailer parks. It can occur in gated communities in North Raleigh. It can happen next door. It can happen to you.

Pigeonholing domestic violence as a working-class problem distracts from the compelling message of the series: it is an abomination that we live in a state where someone can receive more jail time for stealing pine straw than beating his wife.

MaryBe McMillan

Raleigh

We at the U.S. Attorney's Office read with interest your series on domestic violence. Also, we concur with your editorial of May 21 that more needs to be done to combat domestic violence.

As part of President Bush's and Attorney General John Ashcroft's war on gun violence known as Project Safe Neighborhoods (and locally referred to as Operation TRAC -- Targeting Raleigh Area Criminals), there are several federal criminal statutes which local and state authorities should consider in dealing with abusive partners.

When an abusive partner is subject to an adjudicated restraining order or has been convicted of a state misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, under federal law that partner is a "prohibited person" and no longer permitted to own or have custody of a firearm. The mere possession of a firearm, even away from the abused spouse or partner, is a serious federal felony.

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