Boston Council Examines City's Response to Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault

BOSTON — April 24, 2025 — Boston City Council committee examines gaps in domestic violence and sexual assault response. The Committee on Strong Women, Families, and Communities, chaired by at-large Councilor Erin J. Murphy and joined by Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, Councilor Edward M. Flynn, and Councilor John FitzGerald, held a public hearing Thursday on Docket 0183, sponsored by Louijeune, Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, and Councilor Sharon Durkan. Boston Police Deputy Superintendent Victor Evans told the committee the department's domestic violence unit processes roughly 12,000 cases per year with only five advocates — against a target of seven — and no 24-hour in-person coverage. Kim Mendoza-Iraeta, director of the city's new Domestic Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Prevention Initiative at the Boston Public Health Commission, said data on gender-based violence remains "fragmented" across hospitals, community organizations, and police, and described her three-month-old, one-person office as building a centralized data hub. Nithya Bajranath of Jane Doe Inc. warned that 87 percent of Massachusetts sexual assault and domestic violence programs receive federal funding and urged the council to back state bills H2466 and S1562 creating a flexible cash program for survivors. Ruth Zakarin of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence cited research showing the presence of a firearm in a home where domestic violence occurs makes a woman five times more likely to be killed, and that 59.1 percent of mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 were domestic-violence-related.