What the data says about domestic violence

Recent Kentucky child pro­tec­tive ser­vices data shows fam­i­ly vio­lence appeared in more than 10,500 sub­stan­ti­at­ed or ser­vices-need­ed reports statewide. In more than 2,600 of those reports, fam­i­ly vio­lence direct­ly con­tributed. In the Southern Bluegrass region, which includes Clark County, fam­i­ly vio­lence appeared in more than 1,300 reports and direct­ly con­tributed in near­ly 400. (Kentucky Department for Community Based Services, CPS Intake Fact Sheet, May 2026.)

That data does not tell the whole story.

But it tells us enough to know this: fam­i­ly vio­lence is not only a pri­vate mat­ter. It is a com­mu­ni­ty issue that can affect chil­dren, schools, work­places, courts, hous­ing, law enforce­ment, health­care, and the sys­tems fam­i­lies rely on when life becomes unsafe.

Many peo­ple still think of domes­tic vio­lence as a sin­gle vio­lent inci­dent: some­one being hit, a vis­i­ble injury, a police report, or a cri­sis that is obvi­ous from the outside.

Sometimes it is that.

But abuse can also be sub­tle, con­fus­ing, and hard for oth­ers, and even the per­son expe­ri­enc­ing it, to recognize. 

It can look like mon­i­tor­ing someone’s activ­i­ties in per­son or online. It can look like track­ing their loca­tion, read­ing their mes­sages, show­ing up where they are, or using phones and social media to intim­i­date them. It can look like pres­sur­ing some­one to stop spend­ing time with friends or fam­i­ly, using guilt to con­trol ordi­nary deci­sions, putting some­one down, hid­ing keys, chang­ing sto­ries, or repeat­ed­ly deny­ing what hap­pened until a per­son begins to ques­tion their own mem­o­ry, safe­ty, or reality.

For many sur­vivors, the harm is not just a sin­gle moment but a pat­tern that can shape near­ly every part of dai­ly life.

This issue reach­es across age, gen­der, race, income, edu­ca­tion lev­el, and neigh­bor­hood. It does not only affect peo­ple who look a cer­tain way or live a cer­tain kind of life. And yet, too often, it remains hid­den until the harm becomes vis­i­ble to a pub­lic system.

This is why domes­tic vio­lence mat­ters to the whole community.

The good news is that pol­i­cy is begin­ning to catch up.

New legislation offers hope

During Kentucky’s most recent leg­isla­tive ses­sion, sev­er­al bills passed that reflect a broad­er under­stand­ing of abuse, stalk­ing, cus­tody, and data. Three are espe­cial­ly impor­tant for com­mu­ni­ties to know:

Senate Bill 122 makes impor­tant changes in cus­tody cas­es involv­ing domes­tic vio­lence. It says courts must con­sid­er alle­ga­tions of domes­tic vio­lence and abuse, or child abuse and neglect, before weigh­ing oth­er cus­tody fac­tors, and courts must put find­ings on the record about the impact, if any, on the child.

Here in Clark County, this mat­ters because domes­tic vio­lence is not sep­a­rate from par­ent­ing or child well-being. When chil­dren are involved, safe­ty has to be part of the cus­tody con­ver­sa­tion from the beginning.

House Bill 521 updates Kentucky’s stalk­ing law. It rec­og­nizes that stalk­ing can include repeat­ed behav­ior such as fol­low­ing, mon­i­tor­ing, sur­veilling, threat­en­ing, inter­fer­ing with someone’s prop­er­ty, or using phones, texts, email, social media, cam­eras, or oth­er tech­nol­o­gy to harass or intim­i­date someone.

For our com­mu­ni­ty, this mat­ters because fear and con­trol do not occur only face-to-face. A per­son can be mon­i­tored, threat­ened, or harassed long after they have phys­i­cal­ly left.

House Bill 611 strength­ens how Kentucky tracks and responds to domes­tic vio­lence. It requires more infor­ma­tion to be col­lect­ed and report­ed about domes­tic vio­lence, dat­ing vio­lence, pro­tec­tion orders, fatal­i­ties, near fatal­i­ties, and relat­ed court and law enforce­ment data.

This mat­ters here in Clark County because what we do not track is eas­i­er to ignore. Better infor­ma­tion can help com­mu­ni­ties see pat­terns, iden­ti­fy gaps, and under­stand where safe­ty is break­ing down.

These bills bring hope. But laws alone do not cre­ate safe­ty; com­mu­ni­ties do.

I know this per­son­al­ly. As a sur­vivor of severe coer­cive con­trol that spanned on and off over two decades, I know how deeply abuse can shape a person’s life. I also know how much com­mu­ni­ty response mat­ters when some­one is try­ing to under­stand what is hap­pen­ing, stay safe, pro­tect their chil­dren, and rebuild stability.

Moving forward: Silent Cry and beyond

Clark County is already begin­ning to have this con­ver­sa­tion. Silent Cry, a local group work­ing to raise aware­ness of domes­tic vio­lence and sup­port women and chil­dren impact­ed by abuse, is plan­ning a pub­lic event at College Park on June 6. The group has also named a larg­er goal of help­ing estab­lish shel­ter options for domes­tic vio­lence vic­tims in Clark County.

One event or one orga­ni­za­tion can­not solve domes­tic vio­lence alone. But local aware­ness is part of how com­mu­ni­ties begin to see what has too often stayed hidden.

If we want Clark County to be safer for fam­i­lies, we need to do more than respond after a cri­sis. We need to build the con­di­tions that make safe­ty possible.

That means:

• Helping the whole com­mu­ni­ty rec­og­nize warn­ing signs beyond phys­i­cal vio­lence, includ­ing stalk­ing, iso­la­tion, intim­i­da­tion, dig­i­tal mon­i­tor­ing, emo­tion­al abuse, and pat­terns that may be hard to see from the outside.
• Making local resources eas­i­er to find before some­one is in imme­di­ate cri­sis, includ­ing shel­ter options, trans­porta­tion, legal advo­ca­cy, men­tal health sup­port, and safe­ty planning.
• Training the sys­tems fam­i­lies rely on, includ­ing law enforce­ment, courts, schools, work­places, church­es, and com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions, to rec­og­nize domes­tic vio­lence and respond in ways that increase safe­ty rather than min­i­mize harm.

Kentucky’s new laws are one sig­nal that the con­ver­sa­tion is shift­ing. Our com­mu­ni­ty should shift with it. Because this is not only a pri­vate cri­sis. It is a com­mu­ni­ty issue, and safer com­mu­ni­ties begin by pay­ing clos­er atten­tion to what has too often remained hid­den in plain sight.