State Homicide Reduction Plan

As part of the Services – Training – Officers – Prosecutors (STOP) Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program, the Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment (DVPT) Council issues a statewide implementation plan that determines priorities and guides decisions on program and project funding.

The most recent plan was issued in May of 2022, setting forth the primary goals for programs across the state that address domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking through 2025. The goals set forth in this plan include reducing domestic violence homicide and expanding access to services for communities most at risk for these types of violence. The activities that will further those goals include implementing a strangulation response protocol in communities across the state, implementing a high-risk team model in communities across the state, and investing in practices that address victimization among populations traditionally identified as at higher risk for violence.

**View the Model Collaborative Strangulation Response Protocol for Indiana Jurisdictions at the bottom of this page.

Lethality Assessment Project

The Lethality Assessment Program (LAP) represents a collaborative partnership where members of law enforcement use a research-based lethality assessment screening tool with survivors of domestic violence, and connect those individuals determined to be at high risk for lethal level violence with the domestic violence program serving their community. The goal of the LAP is to prevent domestic violence homicides, serious injury, and re-assault by removing as many barriers between survivors and trauma-informed survivor-centered services as possible.

In its traditional iteration, the LAP protocol directs members of law enforcement responding on-scene to a domestic call to conduct an 11-item lethality screen with the survivor. When the protocol indicates that the survivor is at high risk of lethal level violence, the officer makes immediate contact with the domestic violence program. The survivor is then encouraged, but not required, to speak with the domestic violence program representative. The responding officer and the domestic violence program representative work as partners to provide the survivor with safety planning and resource information.

In addition to the traditional format, ICADV has begun working with other agencies to examine how lethality assessment and a similar response protocol partnering with a local domestic violence service provider and implementing similar processes in their organizations. Hospitals, title IX offices at local universities, and other social service agencies have all worked with ICADV to implement a similar process

Indiana was selected as a pilot site for the LAP’s national launch and evaluation project in 2009. Members of Law Enforcement in Allen, Grant and Wabash counties in collaboration with the YWCA Northeast in Ft. Wayne and Hands of Hope in Marion initiated the project in June 2009. At the close of 2024, LAP is implemented in various collaborations in 16 counties across Indiana. There are 70 law enforcement jurisdictions partnering with 9 domestic violence service providers to engage in this best-practice protocol.

Funding Statement

Publication of the Lethality Assessment Protocol Reference Cards for law enforcement officers is supported by Grant No. STOP-2023-00046 and STOPLEA-2022-00023 awarded by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI) with funds from the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICJI or the DOJ. 

Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative

The Indiana General Assembly enacted legislation supporting the creation of community domestic violence fatality review teams in 2003 and expanded the effort in 2017 to create a statewide domestic violence fatality review team. As a part of those legislative efforts, ICADV is tasked with both coordinating the work of the Indiana Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team while providing training and technical assistance to communities that wish to establish a local or regional team. The legislation informs the convention and duties of community-based teams and requires ICADV to generate a statewide fatality review report that identifies trends, and fact patterns common in deaths due to domestic violence as well as recommends strategies to prevent future incidents of and/or fatalities due to domestic violence.

Domestic violence fatality review is a deliberative process undertaken by community stakeholders with the goal of reducing or eliminating this extreme and devastating form of violence by learning as much as possible from the circumstances of each individual death. Team members collect and review data to get a longitudinal overview of the circumstances and experiences of the victim and perpetrator prior to the death. They construct a timeline identifying interventions, red flags, and gaps in services in order to identify all possible opportunities for prevention and intervention across the life spans of the victim and perpetrator.

Rather than seeking to fault individuals or agencies for a domestic violence fatality, review teams operate on a community accountability model and work collaboratively to create safer systems. The team then develops action plans for implementing the recommendations generated through the review process.

Model Collaborative Strangulation Response Protocol for Indiana Jurisdictions

Non-fatal strangulation is the best predictor of homicide in relationships where there is intimate partner violence. Responding appropriately and effectively to non-fatal strangulation assaults is one of the best ways to prevent a potential homicide. It is imperative that our advocates, first responders — law enforcement and medical professionals — and criminal justice system representatives — prosecutors and corrections professionals — are aware of the signs and symptoms of strangulation so that survivors/victims receive the trauma response services, and medical attention needed, and perpetrators are held accountable for this violent crime. Based on a recommendation from the Indiana Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, ICADV authored and published the Model Collaborative Response for Non-Fatal Strangulation for Indiana Jurisdictions. View the protocol below to learn more about strangulation in domestic violence situations.