In Missouri, domestic assault is defined as assault, battery, coercion, harassment, sexual assault, stalking, or false imprisonment against a family or household member, including any child who is a member of the family or household (Koster, 2009). Domestic assault is considered a felony and ranges in seriousness from first to third degree. The varying levels of domestic assault and their specific requirements are detailed in Missouri statutes 565.072-074. The domestic violence laws in Missiouri protect a broad range of victims, so long as they are considered a household or family member. The full statutes can be located on the Missouri General Assembly website.
Help
Unlike in the past, victims of domestic violence today have a variety of resources at their disposal to help deal with their situation. The state of Missouri in particular offers an "Address Confidentiality Program" to victims of DV (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 589.663). This program allows victims of domestic violence to set up a secret alternate mailing address for their important documents to be sent to. The victims public and important mail will be initially sent to the office of the secretary of state, who will then confidentially forward the mail to the victims alternate address. This program aims to prevent victims from being located by their attackers. Another legal action victims can take is to have a protective order taken out against their attacker. There are two types of protective order issued by the state of Missouri: a quickly processed and temporary ex parte order, and a more permanent full order.
In addition to these legal options, every county in Missouri has a state appointed victim advocate available to assist victims of domestic violence. Private organizations like the Missouri Coaltion Against Domestic and Sexual Violence also help victims find help in their area.
Media
Domestic violence has been a topic of increasing awareness over the past several years. This
resulting interest in the topic has generated a wide variety of media related to this type of violence. There are even books that shed light on the lesser known same sex intimate partner violence. The book Intimate Betrayal: Domestic Violence in Lesbian Relationships by author Ellyn Kaschak is just one example. In addition to print resources, there are also many documantaries about domestic violence. One such documentary is Telling Amy's Story. This documentary focuses on the story of a victim of domestic violence homicide. A brief trailer for the film can be seen below.
(Myers, Cooper, Faussette & Nelson, 2010)
News
I found a news article posted in December, 2012 that talks about a huge number of domestic violence victims being turned away from shelters in Missouri due to overcrowding and lack of funding. The article goes on to highlight that some 19,000 victims were turned away from Missouri shelters in 2011 alone (Hanchard, 2012). In addition to the article, there is a brief television segment which can be seen here.
Sources
Hanchard, J. (2012, December 13). Domestic violence shelters face overcrowding, turning away thousands of victims. Retrieved from http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/crime/overcrowding-forces-shelters-to-turn-away-thousands-of-victims
Koster, C. Office of Attorney General, (2009). Protecting victims of domestic violence. Retrieved from Office of Attorney General website: http://ago.mo.gov/publications/domesticviolence.pdf
Myers, J. (Director), Cooper, M. (Producer), Faussette, L. (Producer), & Nelson, S. (Artist) (2010). Telling am'ys story [DVD]. Available from http://telling.psu.edu/index.html
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