OHIO — October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
New data from the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) shows that domestic violence is the most common crime in Ohio, according to a media release.
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“Anecdotally, we suspected that domestic violence was among the most frequent violent crimes in the state, and this data confirms it,” said Gov. Mike DeWine. “The data also reinforces the fact that Ohio must continue to be innovative in its work to protect both domestic violence survivors and the law enforcement officers who respond to calls for help.”
OCJS analyzed this data and investigated about two million violent crime arrests from 1974-2023 in Ohio.
The results came back with over half of all violent crimes committed in Ohio being domestic violence charges, and 70% of the domestic violence charges are repeat offenders.
DeWine directed OCJS to set aside funding for domestic violence-related projects, including:
- $1 million for Ohio’s 55 OCJS-recognized domestic violence shelters, each receiving an $18,000 grant
- A new grants program to fund ballistic shields and bulletproof vests for law enforcement officers
- A new grant program for training law enforcement for high-risk domestic violence incidents
- A new grant program to support co-responder partnership models that are paired with victims to help assist officers on scene with these sensitive cases
Dewine also directed the Ohio Collaborative Community Police Advisory Board to create a statewide standard for how to respond to and investigate domestic violence incidents.
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