BILL NUMBER: SCR 150CHAPTERED BILL TEXT RESOLUTION CHAPTER 155 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE AUGUST 30, 2016 ADOPTED IN SENATE AUGUST 24, 2016 ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 23, 2016 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 18, 2016 INTRODUCED BY Senator Gaines (Coauthors: Senators Anderson, Bates, Block, Hall, and Wieckowski) JUNE 9, 2016 Relative to Domestic Violence Awareness Month. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SCR 150, Gaines. Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This measure would proclaim the month of October 2016, and each following October, as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. WHEREAS, Domestic violence is a significant public health and safety issue that affects women, men, and children of all racial, religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups in California; and WHEREAS, Nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner, which means more than 10 million women and men in the United States are abused each year; and WHEREAS, More than 800,000 women were violently assaulted by an intimate partner between 2002 and 2011, according to statistics from the United States Department of Justice. Of all murder-suicides, 72 percent involve an intimate partner; and WHEREAS, California law enforcement agencies received over 150,000 domestic violence-related calls in 2014, including reports of more than 100 domestic violence-related homicides. There are more than 20,000 additional phone calls placed each day to domestic violence hotlines nationwide; and WHEREAS, A victim is not alone in suffering the impacts of domestic violence. Studies indicate that children who witness domestic violence experience long-term consequences, such as difficulty at school, substance abuse, and serious adult health problems, as well as an increased risk of becoming a domestic violence victim or abuser as an adult; and WHEREAS, Because 75 percent of domestic violence victims have children at home under 18 years of age, the impact of domestic abuse has both immediate and generational effects. In 2011, nearly 21 percent of children in the United States were exposed to domestic violence, either as victims or indirectly as witnesses, illustrating the magnitude of this problem; and WHEREAS, The cost of domestic violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year in the United States--$4.1 billion in direct medical and health care services and nearly $1.8 billion in lost productivity, which includes approximately 8,000,000 days of work lost by abused women each year--equivalent to more than 32,000 full-time jobs; and WHEREAS, Domestic violence programs in California provide essential, lifesaving services to nearly 6,000 victims and their children each day as they flee violence. Overall, state-funded domestic violence programs provide individual counseling to an average of nearly 34,000 victims each year; and WHEREAS, Despite recent reductions in domestic violence incidents, there is an ongoing need to educate the public about domestic violence and to provide all victims access to programs and services; and WHEREAS, The Legislature recognizes the vital role that all Californians can play in preventing, and one day ending, domestic violence; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature recognizes October 2016, and each following October, as Domestic Violence Awareness Month; and be it further Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.