Will County establishes domestic violence review team

Will County — Will County has become one of the first five counties in Illinois to establish a domestic violence fatality review team under the state’s 2021 Domestic Violence Review Act.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s office announced that the 21-member team comprising multidisciplinary representatives of legal and social services organizations has selected its first cases for analysis.

Although the goal of the legislation is to establish a team in each Illinois judicial circuit, only five have been created to pilot the program so far, and Will County is the first to reach this step.

In addition to Will County, domestic violence fatality review teams also have been established in Madison and Bond counties (which are combined in the 3rd Judicial District), Rockford County, Lake County and Kankakee County.

The purpose of the teams is to analyze trends and data about domestic violence cases that end in fatalities or near fatalities in order to “reduce domestic violence; address potential disparate practices and attitudes in systems interacting with domestic violence victims, survivors and offenders; reduce the cost on society of domestic violence; and improve community and systemic responses to domestic violence.”

Teams are required by statute to review at least two cases in depth per year and, every two years, submit a cumulative report to the state that will synthesize the regional reports and create statewide conclusions and recommendations for action at the local and state levels.

“We are hoping that by looking retrospectively at how the victims and perpetrators interacted with each other and others, we can find patterns and see if we need to do better with outreach in certain communities or offer trainings in different subjects,” team coordinator Amirrah Abou-Youssef said. “Ultimately, we want to reduce cases and fatalities.”

Abou-Youssef said the team would be looking at the timelines of domestic abuse, records of services used by victims and perpetrators, mental health histories, interactions with law enforcement or the courts, and interviews with friends and family members, as well as whether there were barriers to access resources that would alert others to red flags about the relationship.

Although the specific cases that are analyzed by the regional groups will remain confidential, they need to be cases that have been finished in the court system.

As the Will County team is starting out, Abou-Youssef said it is specifically looking at fatality cases in which both the victim and perpetrator are dead.

“It’s very hard to find cases that are judicially complete and are still recent enough in Will County,” Abou-Youssef said. “We are starting here because, as a pioneer program, we are basically building the plane around us in the air. We thought it would simplify the process at first.”

Abou-Youssef has worked in domestic violence services for 14 years in Will County and helped to pick the members of the team she now is leading. Some members were required by the statute while others were recommended or hand-selected by the individual team.

Abou-Youssef said the law requires representatives of the state’s attorney’s office, the public defender’s office, the county coroner’s office, local law enforcement agencies, a local domestic violence program, a local partner abuse intervention program and a civil service’s attorney to be on the team.

Other suggested members include mental health and public health professionals, doctors, child welfare workers, survivors or friends of victims, judges, clergy members, elected officials and representatives of minority communities.

The Will County team includes representatives of the Spanish Community Center and the National Hookup of Black Women since, Abou-Youssef said, a disproportionately high number of domestic violence victims in Will County are women of color.

The team is required to meet quarterly but has been meeting monthly to select cases and appoint officers. Abou-Youssef said the team now is ready to begin its work once the state provides it with the review handbook, which is expected in the next month.

“We have assembled a talented team of passionate professionals who are truly invested in making a difference in the lives of survivors of domestic violence in Will County,” Abou-Youssef said. “I believe in Will County. We have the talent and dedication to address this issue, and it’s nice to get all these people together on this team to get to the heart of the problem.”

In 2023, nine women were killed by romantic partners or family members in Will County alone.

“These cases are extremely difficult to prosecute because the victims are living under constant emotional, financial and physical threat and intimidation by their abusers,” Glasgow said in the statement announcing the team. “That’s why I created Will County’s first comprehensive domestic violence protocol for police officers who investigate these difficult crimes to use in their squad cars, explaining the new law and assuring our law enforcement community that I would follow through with charges when appropriate.

“The new domestic violence fatality review team will play an integral role in furthering coordinated community prevention and intervention initiatives in Will County.”

Glasgow also created the Will County Domestic Violence Commission in 1993 and worked to establish the county’s specialized domestic violence court. He also developed a specialized domestic violence prosecution unit in his office.

“The domestic violence fatality review process is invaluable for uncovering potential warning signs, risk factors and missed points of intervention that can help inform and shape policies to prevent future fatalities,” Abou-Youssef said. “Most important, however, is to honor the lives of those we have lost by committing to do better as a community.

“By retrospectively reviewing cases, we keep their memories alive and hope to prevent others from sharing the same fate through identifying commonalities to improve our systemic response to future cases.”