Family Violence

A panel examining how cases of violence against women are handled in Howard County -- by police, courts, medical personnel, counselors and others involved in the process -- is seeking to coordinate efforts to make the process less traumatic for the victims.The Family & Sexual Violence Coordinating Council -- made up of Howard County judges, victim advocates, health professionals and law enforcement personnel -- has identified some areas it wants to target and problems it wants to resolve.

Family violence issues seen in welfare reformI agree with state Sen. Martin Madden that Marylanders should be proud to be among the 15 states to adopt the family violence option, which is part of the federal welfare reform bill.Shamefully, the success of welfare reform may be measured by the increased need for organizations such as the Domestic Violence Center, unless we have more domestic violence training programs under the Violence Against Women Act.This is not a new issue.Twenty years ago, a college conducted a study among African-American women working or seeking employment.

A traveling exhibit with 36 life-size figures representing women killed by domestic abuse in Maryland -- including one from Hampstead -- will arrive at Carroll Community College today after a weekend march in Washington with 1,500 other such figures from as many as 41 states.The "Silent Witnesses" exhibit has been duplicated in several states since a group of artists in Minnesota conceived it in 1990. It was the centerpiece of the March to End the Silence on Saturday.The figures range in size from 65 to 72 inches tall, are made of plywood or pressed board and carry a short narrative on a shield telling the victim's story.

It used to be that officers wrote off domestic killings as a given - unfortunate and often brutal crimes that added numbers to the city's death tally but couldn't be prevented in the traditional way, such as with more police, neighborhood sweeps and arrests. And there wasn't much of a public outcry. People felt bad and were angry, but they didn't feel less safe because the man up the street killed his wife in an upstairs bedroom. A new team of Baltimore police and prosecutors is turning those antiquated theories around.

ASK YOURSELF -- would you ever invite someone into your home to teach your children that violence is a good way to solve problems, that it will likely be rewarded and that it causes no pain?Of course not. Yet we effectively do this every day. Our children watch an average of 28 hours of television each week. By high school graduation, most teen-agers have spent more time in front of television than in school.And what are they watching? Kids leaving elementary school have seen 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other acts of televised violence.

A 20-year-old Eldersburg man who police said attacked his mother was treated at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore Friday night after he was struck with a baseball bat by the woman's husband, authorities said.Matthew O'Connell of the 7000 block of Saddle Drive was intoxicated when he began arguing with his mother, Judith Stromberg, about noon, police said. Tfc. Nicholas Over said the young man went to his room and began throwing furniture, which he continued to do in the room where his mother was sitting.

On her first day as Miss America, Carolyn Suzanne Sapp came down to the cameras waiting on the beach at Atlantic City wearing a T-shirt and shorts and a radiant smile, ready for the pictures of innocent sensuality that is the image of her role. "There she is," as the song puts it, "your ideal."But on the second day, her private life intruded. There were news reports from her home state of Hawaii that Miss Sapp had been abused by an ex-boyfriend, a former NFL football player, that he had beaten her and tried to strangle her and that she had sought protection from the courts and the police.

Sitting in their tranquil cream kitchen, the picture window and deck behind them, mother and daughter spoke calmly about "the incident." "It was March 11, 2002," the mother started, her hands folded on the glass-and-iron table. "She came back with a bad report card." "I had one D," said her 15-year-old daughter, wearing jeans and a pink shirt with glitter writing. "No, two Ds and one C," the mother responded softly. Just more than a year ago, the 39-year-old sat at this same table, in this same pretty, 2,430- square-foot home tucked near Patapsco Valley State Park, and started telling the same story.

The Montgomery County man charged with drowning his three children in a Baltimore hotel bathtub during a bitter custody battle with his estranged wife was ordered held without bail yesterday as experts on domestic violence cases struggled to determine whether the killings could have been prevented. Dr. Amy Castillo had fought repeatedly in Montgomery County courtrooms to keep Mark Castillo from his children, citing alleged threats, but judges ruled against petitions for a protective order and to curtail the visitation rights the couple had originally agreed upon.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- His is the story of a young life flooded by family tragedies and the fierce will to drive onward and upward on the basketball court.At age 21, Illinois guard Kevin Turner has dealt with more obstacles than most people can contemplate and become a full-fledged star.When his team takes on Maryland today in the West Regional at Arco Arena, the phlegmatic Turner again will be playing for his brother Kenneth, who was shot and killed in a gang cross-fire in Chicago while on his way to the store two years ago this week.