Why This Online Guide?

Domestic violence is a hard issue to investigate and a complicated one to report. Yet increasingly, reporters are getting the message out that domestic violence is a crime and that there is help for victims.

So why has the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV) developed this guide?

This guide is the result of a dialogue the we began over a dozen years ago with reporters and survivors of domestic violence about a particular type of media coverage - the domestic violence murder. Time and time again, though less often these days, the RICADV experienced a disconnect between the reporting of domestic violence in the context of a murder and most other coverage that domestic violence received.

The goal of this online guide is for reporters to see a murder or other crime involving intimate partners through the lens of domestic violence. The Online Guide provides reporters with information about Rhode Island's domestic violence law and an understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence. It also shares the lessons that the RICADV has learned through conversations with journalists, through its own work, through recommendations from survivors, and from a 3-year media study conducted by the Boston College Media Research Action Project. While the handbook focuses on the RICADV's experience in Rhode Island, these experiences are similar to what happens in other states.

Our hope is that the process that began with this guide will help advocates and survivors continue an important dialogue with those in the media. Reporters can make a difference in the lives of victims by lifting the veil of silence that allows domestic violence to go unchecked to the point of murder.