DAVIS COUNTY—One out of three Utah women will experience some form of sexual violence, physical violence or stalking. Safe Harbor received 1,449 calls in 2024 and Davis County law enforcement did 649 LAPs (Lethality Assessment Protocols). 

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month created to help shine a light on this growing problem.

“Domestic violence continues to be a challenge in our county,” said Deb Comstock, LCSW, chair of the Davis County Domestic Violence Coalition. “Amazingly some women don’t want to go to a shelter. They want to find a way to stay home. That continues to be difficult for women but I think a lot of it has to do with us learning how to talk to them about preparing if they need to leave in an emergency. But if they can stay safely at home we're going to do that.”

It continues to cut across all aspects of our community, she said. “It doesn’t matter if you have a large income or not.”

 Comstock said they put together a presentation recently for faith leaders because one of their prevention efforts is reaching out to them. “We know that many times women go to their faith leaders for support before they go to other resources.” 

Based on their faith, leaders have different ways they need to respond. “We wanted to be sensitive to that, especially given the fact that a faith leader might be dealing with family violence,” she said. “They’re dealing not only with the person who is hurt but the person who has caused the hurt that’s also a member of their congregation.”

Comstock said they met with faith leaders to find out what they can do as a coalition to walk up alongside them if they have a victim and are needing some support. “It was a great dialogue. It was just the beginning.”

Strangulation continues to be the most dangerous aspect when it occurs in an intimate partner violence situation, she said. “Strangulation is one of those things that victims don’t realize that's detrimental to them. Whether it’s air or blood flow that is cut off it can result in crisis months later. Things like stroke, etc., they haven’t entertained, that is something that could happen.”

Comstock said people don’t really want to know domestic violence is happening. “Maybe they don’t know how to respond. So our message in Davis County is domestic violence does occur.”

Victims get kind of bullied into a corner, she said. “They think nobody is going to believe them. So they kind of cower down and don’t say anything. If you know something is happening one of the best things you can do is to let them know you believe them. Then when they’re ready or reach out for help let them know where to go.”

If somebody doesn’t know about intimate partner violence, like they’ve never taken a class on it, they can go through the myPlan app to get an understanding of it and what it looks like, said Comstock. “Not only what it looks like to recognize when someone might be getting abused but it also has a whole section in there if you’re a family member or care about somebody who you think is being abused how you can approach them.”

Comstock said she still hears people say, “Well she just needs to leave.” “If it was that simple it would have been solved a long time ago. But it continues to not be that. We need to be supportive and provide avenues so that when somebody’s ready to get out of something they can leave and not be blamed or shamed if she can’t stay out in terms of going back because that’s what they know.”

Sometimes people are not sure how to react, she said. “Not speaking about it is worse. People might say ‘it’s not my business.’ No, it's everybody’s business.”