South Carolina leads the nation in per capita domestic violence. But the statistics supporting that grim ranking don't tell the full story of this plague on our state. The horrendous injuries, both physical and psychological, inflicted upon women and children transcend mere numbers. And as news reports repeatedly demonstrate, domestic violence doesn't just hurt -- at times, it kills.
A year ago, S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster initiated a pilot program in Kershaw and Orangeburg counties and Columbia's municipal court to disrupt the insidious cycle of domestic violence. Traditionally, only those relatively rare cases of criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature were prosecuted in state court, with most cases handled in municipal and magistrate courts. Without prosecutors, most cases resulted in little or no legal penalties on abusers -- and often left victims believing that reporting these crimes was an exercise in futility.
But under the program begun by Mr. McMaster, private attorneys have volunteered to help prosecute at those lower levels of justice. That has held domestic-violence offenders to sterner, quicker account, and has given them more reason to change their ways before a pattern of abuse leads to tragedy. Support groups for domestic-violence victims also play an essential role in this process, appearing in court to offer expertise and bolster the victims' resolve.
Though the pilot program is now of limited scope, Mr. McMaster told us Tuesday that it has already produced encouraging results -- more than two-thirds of the 371 cases have resulted in convictions. That's impressive, considering that domestic-violence victims often recant their initial accusations or refuse to testify against their assailants. Mr. McMaster explained: "This is a unique area of prosecution. It takes special training for investigators, for prosecutors, for judges."
And it takes special commitments from the 17 volunteer attorneys actively trying cases to make the pilot program work. "There's no way we could try those cases otherwise," Mr. McMaster noted.
The attorney general also said that the pilot program, with more volunteer attorneys, would soon expand into Winnsboro City Court and York County. The "long haul" goal: "We need to send two important messages. The message to the woman is that she's going to have help, that she's no longer alone. The message to the defendants and would-be defendants is that the days of battering women are over."
With the help of this volunteer effort, the number of domestic violence victims and this state's dismal ranking should decline.
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