BY | June 22, 2023

California maintains a state database of recording law enforcement responses to calls and making arrests, Future Bail Bonds knows that the trend of Domestic Violence is the only category within this database where the report’s annual totals have increased over the last ten years, dropping only slightly in 2020 during the COVID Pandemic.  This Domestic Violence category is divided into weapons use, type of conflict, and type of injuries (strangulation vs stabbing) but does not distinguish the age, genders, or association (spouse, partner, relative) of the participants.  The total for 2021 was 164,608 and the total of complaints identify the incidents that were reported; that equals a little more than 3100 incidents per week on average.

Traditions of the past social norms to not get involved or mind your own business have been downplayed by technology advancement and in the contemporary push for pro-activism with slogans If you See Something, Say Something and Hate Has No Home Here have encouraged persons to speak up when they see or hear abusive discourse or hostility in the making.  The help that so many pleaded for during social or domestic situations is now being observed and-or observed and reported to hot-lines or law-enforcement.  It seems more urgent for people to speak up when they feel something is out of place or incorrect in a person’s treatment of another.

Modern Neighborhoods

In most California cities, there are densely populated urban areas where close dwellings and homes eliminate a true sense of special privacy.  Anyone who lives in an apartment complex or shares a narrow pathway between units with a common wall, or a house with a driveway dividing the property from one to the next knows the sound of loud neighbors.  There is a distinct difference between a loud television show or movie and an argument between two people complete with injuries, that difference is the presence of equally audible music.  Less densely populated areas have the advantage of privacy, but also the problems of isolated living in the event of personal emergency or care.

In all cases and even among families, the signs of physical and sexual abuse between family members have become updated in social vocabulary and are more available in social help centers, clinics, and other public spaces.  People are more observing of “controlling” behavior and symptoms of trauma, which may have gone undetected, or incident “bruising” that does not match activity the claimant’s explanation.  Future Bail Bonds understands the emotional difficulties of domestic violence in the home (that includes sexual abuse) from the perspectives of all parties.

Empowerment

Victims of domestic violence in physical or mental forms often feel that they are at fault for doing something incorrectly.  Any threat of harm, or harming children, is not a rational response to anyone’s anger.  Analyzing what may have been done to “live the moment again” is not rational either.  An emotional or physical beating is not going to satisfy the situation or correct the error or prevent the next occurrence of the same.  Changing the base desire to abuse a partner is a problem brought on by their environment, reactions to pressure, abuse of substances or alcohol, or physiological/neurological disorder.  Only a professional evaluation can make the determination, but the problem should not be the priority for the victim.  The victim is usually the weaker of the two; weaker in finance, language, mobility, or general worldliness by being captive in their domicile by expectation, culture, or other form of threat.

The domestic abuser needs a recorded complaint to prevent them from doing the same in future relationships.  In California, domestic violence charges are never dropped or retracted, they will be prosecuted even if the victim changes their mind.  The victim needs to know that their survival is always a better alternative and sessions within the services for domestic violence include building the pro-active side of one’s self to improve esteem and confidence.  Your ability to find and maintain a normal partner for a relationship will not be impaired.  Facing your abuser in the protected space of a courtroom will be a relatively safe and pain free experience, putting even more distance and time from the events.

California has a large number of shelters for women and women with children who are victims of domestic violence.  The numbers for the Emergency Shelters in your area (county) that can accommodate you and your family beyond your departure.  Domestic Shelters provides advisements and programs for assistance in your area of the state.  They can be reached at www.domesticshelters.org/help/ca.  Call 800-799-4233 for the National Hot-Line and get immediate live assistance or advisements.

Steps To Quelling Domestic Violence

For the person suffering in a situation that includes domestic violence, the first step is to secure enough cash to get a second cell phone that you use only for all your preparation calls for fleeing.  The cash will be necessary for transportation needs and possible lodging until placement.  Develop an Exit Plan that will help your immediate needs when you are ready to truly exit.  The domestic violence charge can come about on your calling police if your partner has violated a restraining order.  If the police arrive in response to a domestic violence incident and there are signs of conflict, the abuser may be taken away on your agreement that the abuser was in fact harming you.

If there is more than one person under the immediate care of the person with the “exit plan” such as minor children or an adult who requires care), the plan must include how they are to be dispatched.

The following is a model of an Exit Plan:

Exit Plan

1. Get a new cell phone with a new number that you will use immediately after leaving. All calls to agencies for help or legal assistance should be made on this private phone.  You can maintain your original phone for finding old numbers, but do not use it to make or calls.  Turn it off after you have left.
2. Make confidential arrangements with ONE friend or family relative to entrust with your plan.

• They will need your first and last name, the names of the persons in your care
• Your contact information including new number
• Sign and date a document that entrusts them to any items you want them to hold. (keep a copy).

3. Prepare a ready backpack with 2 changes of clothes, toothbrush, grooming, medication, and essential items to sustain each individual for a week.

• Each adult will need a second pair of shoes.
• Each child will need their items labeled.
• Each bag should have clear first-name and last-name identification.
• Each bag should have your name as the associated person in charge.
• All items should have your new contact number.
• Special Needs Documentation for any member of the group.
• At least $100 in cash or a cash-app savings of 100.00 that can be used for transportation or lodging.
• The numbers for the Emergency Shelters in your area (county) that can accommodate you and your family beyond your departure.

Arrested for Domestic Violence

Future Bail Bonds agents can assist in providing a 1% down bail bond for Domestic Violence arrests on conditions of the first-time offense.  If you have any previous conviction in the last five years of misdemeanor or felony, you cannot utilize this bail bond rate, but others may work.  The requirements are detailed in this website, and the process requires you to have been a two-month resident of California with employment.  The full bail amount for Domestic Violence (first time) is $50,000, so you must also be prepared to have two indemnitors who have a total income of twice the total bail amount.

Let the professional agents available at Future Bail Bonds explain these options to you.  For most all bond types, a California ID, current employment, and a couple of strong assisting persons (family members or friends) will make it work and probably for less money than you thought possible.

Making a Difference

Domestic violence has increased overall by law enforcement statistics and the California stance on the crime is that it will not dismiss any.  Perhaps this is in contrast to so many years of ignoring the problem completely, or putting spouses, significant others, or family members in the line of fire for retaliation violence.  There’s a desire for accountability so that home remains the safer place for everyone and not imprisonment with looming threats of rape, mental, and physical harm.

There is a percentage of cases where men are the victims and women are the abusers, but the overwhelming majority is men abusing their female partners.  There are cases of people who married to guarantee support for their families or to gain US Citizenship and in exchange will endure abuse to fulfill that contract.  It has been proven that sex traffickers have taken children or women (to appear as a family) and sequestered them so that they remain ignorant of what they may be able to achieve.

It's important to do the neighborly thing to do and speak up when it is evident that a domestic violence situation is in progress. Sometimes even a casual interruption and inquiry during a couple’s argument in a parking lot can stop the escalation or provide a gateway to an exit.  The person being abused realizes that they are not invisible.