Violence against minority women is nearing a cataclysmic level
On the same day the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence issued its annual report pointing to a 110 percent rise in domestic-violence-related deaths in 2023, Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that Karina’s Law, a bill intended prohibit gun ownership from those served with domestic violence orders of protection currently under debate in the Illinois General Assembly (IGA), had faced obstacles over funding. How ironic this development arrives at the moment Chicago prepares to roll out the welcome mat to the Democratic National Convention, the party which purports to advance the cause of women’s rights. Party leadership’s silence on the growing pandemic of violence against women and children is deafening.
Karina’s Bill would require law enforcement to take the necessary action to order law enforcement to remove a firearm from a home when a survivor is granted an order of protection. A matter the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence believes can have a significant bearing on the safety and security of abused women, the coalition found there were 94 incidents of domestic violence that led to 120 deaths in 2023. Data collected by the coalition reveals the presence of a firearm in a home occupied by an individual with a history of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse increases the risk of homicide by an astounding 500 percent.
As governor of a state that received $54 billion in COVID relief funds and the federal funding the Biden Administration made available to support programs to address domestic violence, it is an outrage Pritzker to cry poor and assert a shortfall in funding defers passage of Karina’s Bill. What of the state money specifically earmarked for domestic violence from the state’s windfall cannabis revenues? How can Illinois plead poor when the state spending is rising elsewhere? How can Governor Pritzker justify $1 billion spent on migrant heath care, but not find the political capital in pursuit of protections extended to victims of domestic abuse? Since when did illegals take priority over residents who are domestic violence victims?
The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence ordinarily releases its annual report in October, but was so alarmed by the findings, it decided to publish the 2023 report months earlier. Those findings are anything but surprising. The past few years have been terrifying for women suffering from domestic abuse. In 2023 alone, domestic shootings went up a staggering 19 percent. Violent crimes and sexual assaults have hurtled on an upward trajectory while arrests by police have decreased.
This trend is especially true in Chicago, where violent crime against women has risen steadily. According to the Chicago Violence Reduction Dashboard, data from 2023 uncover a total of 13,969 female victims of violent crime such as assault, battery, criminal sexual assault, robbery, and homicide. A 26 percent increase from 2020, black women in particular are at significant risk. A CBS News Chicago report determined that the number of black women victimized by domestic abuse was even higher — 30 percent — or nearly 1 in 3 crime victims were black women. Black women and girls under 18 were most vulnerable, with 14 black girls attacked and injured for every white girl.
Why the silence of Mayor Johnson and his progressive supporters on this issue? The overwhelming majority of domestic violence victims including murder and attempted murder are women of color. Is it because it is hard to portray men of color who brutalize women and children as victims of an unfair judicial system?
The tragedy of Karina’s Bill’s long journey through the Illinois General Assembly is not only that it’s taken so long for Democratic lawmakers to recognize that there is a domestic violence crisis that is increasingly taking lives and inflicting permanent damage on survivors. It’s also that lawmakers have failed to demonstrate the same enthusiasm for protecting victims of domestic abuse as they did when they exercised compassion for violent criminals through the SAFE-T Act, many of whom are domestic abusers.
Individuals with “Orders of Protection” applied against them are prohibited from being in possession of a firearm. Law enforcement, judges, and members of the court should be effectuating existing laws and providing transparency on the issues. The need to pass a law to force the courts to fulfill their duties is egregious. So much for the promises from the supporters of the SAFE-T Act that they would take action to protect witnesses and victims.
A fundamental breakdown in basic law enforcement — especially when it relates to victims of domestic violence — is clearly evident in Cook County. Recall the recent tragedy in which Jayden Perkins, age 11, was murdered while he attempted to defend his pregnant mother from a serial abuser, who was stabbed and critically injured after her abuser was released from prison. The alleged attacker had an extensive criminal record and had been the subject of numerous orders of protection.
The victim in the Perkins incident was denied an emergency order of protection, but a hearing had been scheduled to consider a plenary order of protection, which would have offered protections for up to two years. The perpetrator, Crosetti Brand, was not served the summons to appear in court by the Cook County Sheriff's Office, even though he had been in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Instead of his parole being denied and attending this hearing via Zoom, Brand was released. On the day of the scheduled court hearing, Brand committed these horrific acts of violence.
Sadly, the Perkins case is just the most recent example of poor accountability in a system in which victims and their children are routinely being harmed or murdered after seeking assistance from a court system that continues to fail law-abiding residents. The brutality found in the Perkins case is becoming a common occurrence in Cook County, where our justice system and its stewards — the courts and the Office of the Chief Judge — are protected by a veil of secrecy, the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
In Cook County, the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County oversees one of the county’s electronic monitoring programs, the pretrial and probation departments, and the juvenile justice system, including the juvenile detention facility. The operation of each of these county programs and departments perform clandestinely, with no access to it by taxpayers, victims of crime, those who are navigating through the justice system, or by children's advocates. Without transparency how can there be any semblance of accountability? How are victims of violent crime to trust a justice system that functions under these covert circumstances? This is not a money issue. Quite the contrary, it is a leadership issue.
There is an urgency for lawmakers to pass Katrina’s Law. If for no other reason, the legislation should compel lawmakers entrusted with the enforcement of the law to fulfill their legal obligations or be penalized for failing to do so. However, there is nothing preventing law enforcement, other than the political leaders and their appointees, from doing their job. What should be done to better protect women and their children in addition to enacting true transparency in our court systems? What can be done in the DNC’s host city Chicago to ensure that keeping women and their children who have been victims of domestic violence safe is also a women’s rights issue too?
To correct the flaws and remove obstacles preventing law enforcement from protecting the defenseless, several actions should be taken.
First, focus on the most important step: Orders of protection must be served in a timely and effective manner by the sheriff. Oftentimes, these orders mandate that the abuser leave the home, transfer ownership of firearms, and relinquish Firearm Owner’s Identification cards. These are critically important steps to grant protections to victims, their children, co-workers, law enforcement and the general public, many of whom have unfortunately been killed or injured in domestic incidents.
In Chicago, Police need to rely on various indexes — primarily databases — and begin serving any outstanding orders. This will ensure the court’s orders of protection are valid, enforceable, and are truly providing protection to victims. This would also allow police to arrest those who violate a judge’s restraining order.
Second, close coordination between city and state agencies is essential. In Chicago the departments of Housing, Public Health, and Family and Support Services should be working in close consultation to systemize care and prioritizing new services for victims of domestic violence. Those include housing, trauma-informed care, and employment assistance.
Furthermore, Chicago should make every effort to secure housing within the boundaries of every police district, so there will always be refuge available for women and children escaping violence across the City of Chicago. The state and local governments should collaborate with community-based organizations and with law enforcement to ensure domestic abuse survivors are safe and benefiting from social services.
Third, the SAFE-T Act should be amended to make it easier to detain and jail individuals who attack, threaten, or contact victims, witnesses, or police officers. Lawmakers in the Illinois General Assembly must also find methods to provide prosecutors and the courts with the resources they need to advocate for pretrial detention of violent perpetrators. In addition to funding for the justice system, legislators should act to find the necessary financial support promised to victims of domestic abuse when the SAFE-T Act was enacted. How about the same benefits provided illegal migrants?
Fourth, Chicago must exercise its authority under Home Rule to enact its own public safety legislation, with specific protections extended to victims of domestic abuse. Such an ordinance can mandate a minimum jail term of 364 days and include fines and terms of probation for individuals who threaten police, intimidate witnesses, engage in hate crimes, commit more serious weapons violations, and are in possession of a stolen vehicle. The city’s Home Rule powers mean state laws and the state's attorney are not the sole authority for public safety.
Last, a permanent position of First Deputy for gender-based violence within the Chicago Police Department must be created. The individual charged with this role would be entrusted with the responsibility of concentrating on police effectiveness, the implementing of training and best practices, and ensuring victims are protected. This official would create and introduce policies and violence interdiction strategies, ensure data collection and reporting, and lead efforts to collaborate with social services and the criminal justice system.
A domestic violence crisis is enveloping Chicago. That lawmakers in Chicago are ignoring the plight of those who live in fear of domestic abuse is both a disservice to victims of crime and an abomination. The suffering of survivors of domestic abuse is aggravated by provisions in the SAFE-T Act pretrial release changes, which is flooding the streets with violent offenders, as well as the deliberate withholding of information which would determine the impact of failing to keep dangerous and repeat offenders off the street.
The current legal framework and its custodians are failing women in the absence of transparency, inept coordination between government agencies, and in a system that releases violent individuals without the necessary procedures and legal devices to keep victims of domestic abuse free from injury. It is sheer hypocrisy that the Democratic leadership of a state which insists to be on the vanguard of the crusade for women’s rights would be so remiss at protecting women’s most basic right. It is long overdue to make women’s and children's safety a top priority in Chicago and across the State of Illinois.
Paul G. Vallas is CEO of The McKenzie Foundation and a policy advisor at the Illinois Policy Institute. Mr. Vallas ran for mayor of Chicago in 2023 and previously served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
