Program Overview
In 2024, the state launched the Statewide Targeted Reductions in Intimate Partner Violence (STRIVE) initiative. STRIVE is modeled after the state’s Gun-Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative and requires that partners in each identified county develop a comprehensive plan to reduce intimate partner violence using one or more evidence-based strategies. These include a domestic violence high-risk team model, lethality assessment program, or intimate partner violence intervention. STRIVE partners are required to actively involve community members and programs that serve victims and survivors in strategy selection and implementation.
The following 20 localities were identified for participation based on the volume and rate of domestic and intimate partner violence in their counties: Albany, Broome, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Dutchess, Erie, Genesee, Jefferson, Monroe, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Orange, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Suffolk, and Westchester.
Counties participating in STRIVE will also receive training and technical assistance to implement their plans and chosen strategy or strategies and can access crime analysis, intelligence development and investigative support from the state’s network of 11 Crime Analysis Centers to identify perpetrators and build effective cases for prosecution.
Reducing Intimate Partner Violence
In addition to STRIVE, several other actions to reduce intimate partner violence were undertaken:
District attorneys’ offices in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island will receive support to implement early case enhancement strategies to improve evidence collection, strengthen collaboration between police and prosecutors, and quickly connect survivors with support services. This coordinated, early intervention aims to increase victim safety, strengthen the prosecution of domestic violence cases, and ensure offender accountability.
A multiagency review led by DCJS, in coordination with OPDV, is underway to modernize the state’s current, paper-based Domestic Incident Report (DIR) and state DIR repository for law enforcement. Police officers are required to complete this report whenever they respond to a domestic call, regardless of whether an arrest is made.
A summit sponsored by DCJS and OPDV was held in October 2024 to educate law enforcement, attorneys, social services staff, gender-based violence services providers, and other local and state professionals about tools to assess danger in intimate partner and domestic violence cases.
DCJS also works with OPDV and other state agencies to inform local practices through its Domestic Violence Regional Councils, Fatality Reviews, and Survivor Listening Sessions.