Of all the policy areas and issues the Maine Legislature works to address, few are more important than those impacting public safety and our justice system. Fortunately, these issues often lend themselves to bipartisan cooperation and, as we saw this session, bring lawmakers from both sides of the aisle together to find solutions to the challenges we face.
The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, on which I serve, is one of the Legislature’s policy panels that deal with these issues on a regular basis. This session, our committee and the Legislature as a whole took important steps to help victims of crime, particularly Mainers who have experienced domestic violence.
Preventing domestic violence and protecting its victims are top priorities for me and for many of my legislative colleagues. Domestic violence impacts tens of thousands of Mainers. According to the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, 47 percent of all assaults reported to law enforcement in 2013 were domestic violence related while many more surely went unreported. Last year, 14 of the 21 homicides in Maine were the result of domestic violence. Six of those were children.
One new law, sponsored by Rep. Michelle Dunphy, D-Old Town, strengthens the existing Address Confidentiality Program, which helps keep information about victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking out of the hands of their abusers. LD 756 adds new provisions to the program, which has provided a layer of protection to hundreds of families since it was established roughly 15 years ago, in order to keep the names of participants confidential on certain municipal documents.
The Legislature also moved to make the dissemination of “revenge porn” a crime in our state. The bill, LD 679, which I co-sponsored, addresses a disturbing trend where perpetrators post intimate images or videos of their victims online without consent.
It’s a tactic used to embarrass, harass and blackmail victims, often as part of a larger pattern of abuse. That’s why LD 679 had the support of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, the Maine Women’s Lobby, the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Maine Sheriff’s Association. It passed “under the hammer” — by unanimous consent of lawmakers — in the House and the Senate.
Once the law goes into effect Oct. 15, the unauthorized dissemination of such images will be a Class D crime, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days of incarceration and a fine of $2,000.
Lawmakers gave bipartisan approval to several other measures intended to help victims of domestic violence, including a new law to align state law with a federal provision to help keep firearms out of the hands of convicted perpetrators of domestic violence. Another will ensure a victim’s right to have an attorney speak on their behalf or submit a written statement of impact at sentencing in domestic violence and other court cases — a right defendants already have and which is particularly important to victims of domestic violence and stalking.
Another measure that passed this session will improve workplace protections for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and their immediate family members by strengthening the existing prohibition of discrimination or retaliation against an employee who takes a leave of absence from work because of the violence.
These are important steps. But as domestic violence prevention advocates know too well, our work is not done. I am proud that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle worked together to help victims of domestic violence. While these measures are important steps in the right direction, lawmakers must continue to do all we can accomplish through public policy to end domestic violence in our state.
Rep. Jim Davitt, D-Hampden, is serving his first term in the Maine House and represents Hampden and Newburgh. A professor of Justice Studies at the University of Maine at Augusta, Davitt serves on the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.