Here, the University of Buffalo Law School has researchers who are putting together a system to trace individual cases so there will be data that measures the effectiveness of systems that are in place. In Erie County, the Amherst Police received 1,223 complaints of domestic violence in 1993. The Erie County District Attorney has established a domestic violence unit to intervene in domestic situations and prevent injury. In 1992, five out of six of the homicides in Amherst involved domestic abuse, according to the Amherst Police Department. Accordingly, the presence of spousal abuse is the single most identifiable risk marker for predicting child abuse.
Domestic violence has many forms.
There is the obvious physical nature of abuse as well as the less obvious psychological forms of abuse. However, each form of abuse seeks control. In order to address these problems in Erie County, a volunteer citizens group was formed in 1994 by Amherst women who believed that a task force was needed to assist the Family Offense Unit in Erie County. This volunteer group is the Amherst Domestic Violence Task Force. As of May 1995, Laurie Russ, Chairperson of the Task Force, said there are fifty current members including survivors of domestic violence, police, judges, elected officials, lawyers, social workers, psychologists, nurses, teachers, students, and human services agencies.