There may be fewer cases of domestic violence in Clarion County this year, but the cases that have been reported are more dangerous.
“In the last month we have seen a lot of domestic abuse orders,” legal advocate Linda Trojek said. “I personally have done four orders in the last five days and I am not the only one working on the abuse orders. These are brand new protection orders and each one of them involved criminal charges. The general public doesn’t think this happens in our little rural county but it does,” Trojek added.
“Normally most of the abuse we see is hitting and punching but now we are seeing more guns and knives,” said shelter advocate Laurie Snyder. “We have seen those numbers go up quite a bit. We track what kinds of weapons are used. While our overall numbers may be down the violence we are seeing is getting worse,” Snyder added.
“Our count is down this year but we attribute that to the fact that people are out of work due to the shutdown and the victims are not able to flee their abusers like they normally would,” said Bridge House manager Angela Alcorn. “Usually the victims get relief when the abusers are at work but with them not working they just can’t get away.”
Clarion County commissioners have proclaimed October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the county. The proclamation said that one out of every three women and one out of every four men report they have been physically abused by an intimate partner or family member at some point in their lives and that 76 men, women and children in Clarion County requested services for domestic violence between July of 2020 to October of 2020.
In one year alone, 19 Clarion County women and seven children sought emergency domestic violence shelter for 433 nights.
“About fifty percent of the men who frequently assault their wives also frequently abuse their children, and one in four girls between 14 and 17 are involved in an abusive relationship,” the proclamation said.
The commissioners “urged all citizens to actively participate in programs sponsored by SAFE (Stop Abuse for Everyone) to work toward the elimination of institutional violence against women.”