Overview: Domestic violence is a serious issue in the Inland Empire, with 8,525 calls for assistance in 2018 in San Bernardino County. However, only 37% of sexual assaults are reported in California, and survivors often face challenges in accessing justice and support. The nonprofit organization Partners Against Violence provides support for survivors, but the need for awareness and funding remains. Advocates are working to establish collaboration between the community and law enforcement to address the issue.
Janeth Cisneros
“I had no help and no one to tell. When I did attempt to tell someone, my family said nothing — as if it had never happened. When I was in college, a women’s center did a presentation on sexual assault and rape in the context of domestic violence, and I saw the cycle,” said Linda Durant.
Durant is a survivor of domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence, with 45 years experience as a counselor and volunteer at Partners Against Violence, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting survivors based in San Bernardino.
In the Inland Empire, a growing number of women face abuse in silence, often with nowhere to turn for support. Yet, the fight against domestic violence remains strong for advocates as they work on establishing collaboration between the community and law enforcement.
According to the latest available data, in 2018, 8,525 domestic violence calls for assistance were made in San Bernardino County. A 2024 brief published by Riverside University Health System- Public Health, reported that in 2022, Riverside County law enforcement received nearly one domestic violence-related call every hour.
Sara Shook, associate director with 22 years of experience at Partners Against Violence, shared that the organization has served 3,500 survivors in cities within and outside the Inland Empire over the past year.
Shook pointed out that the number of people they help is only a small fraction of domestic violence survivors because, in the state of California, only 37% of sexual assaults are reported.
These numbers raise questions for some advocates about law enforcement’s effort to address survivors’ needs and the justice system that many women navigate as targets of violence.
“There are many components because you must address shelter, whether they have housing, food for themselves and their children. You must be able to address the basic needs,” said Claudia Ochoa, a campus survivor advocate at CSUSB.
Providing basic needs for survivors remains a challenge when survivors’ safety isn’t secure and justice hasn’t been served.
“It takes the most vulnerable survivors to speak on how not having the proper funding is going to affect them and why they need this funding. It should never be the situation where a survivor has to reopen their wounds and beg for this money to be in place because the need is there,” said Arlinda Wilson, survivor specialist at CSUSB’s Survivor Advocacy Services (SAS).
It’s a priority for advocates to secure the necessary funding for survivors, regardless of how difficult it can be to obtain it. Despite this challenge, Wilson noted a slight increase in domestic violence reporting by survivors in the Inland Empire.
“Lower numbers don’t necessarily mean that it wasn’t happening; it means it was being reported,” Wilson explains.
Dr. Norris, a criminal justice professor at CSUSB, described the importance of awareness among law enforcement and local agencies who encounter domestic violence survivors.
“There is often a lack of communication between many of the systems that survivors must deal with, a lot of times those systems don’t talk to each other. It leaves them very vulnerable to falling through the cracks. They deal with a lot of different systems, and those systems are not fully aware of the situation,” Dr. Norris said.
Shook explained the limitations of law enforcement with regard to their expertise. Shook isn’t equipped to do forensic exams, and law enforcement isn’t qualified to do crisis intervention counseling like Shook can.
“Law enforcement, well, they have a job to do. That’s why we have the whole sexual assault response team, which is made up of sexual assault advocates, the DA’s office, the forensic nurses, and then law enforcement because we are all trained in specific entities, and it’s very hard,” explained Shook.
As advocates, Ochoa and Wilson discussed the challenges they face.
“There’s tons of loopholes within the criminal justice system that haven’t caught up to what’s
happening. Processes within the criminal justice system or court systems are revictimizing,” Wilson said. “Lack of education within certain departments, not understanding what it means to be trauma-reformed and trauma-responsive is a huge issue, too.”
Ochoa drew attention to how revictimization can occur when survivors interact with law enforcement.
“When a victim or survivor is being interviewed [about] sexual violence or rape, they’re told, ‘if you cooperate, you can save other victims,’” Ochoa explained. “We’re putting a burden on this individual who has already experienced their own trauma [by] putting that responsibility to save other potential future victims [on them].”
Durant emphasized the need for awareness and the need to seek help. Counselors like herself recognize that the first step is for survivors to make contact, and then to walk with survivors through their journey.
Janeth Cisneros is an aspiring journalist at California State University, San Bernardino, majoring in Intelligence & Crime Analysis with a minor in Multimedia Storytelling. Passionate about investigative reporting, she focuses on uncovering impactful stories for her community. Her interest in hard-hitting journalism began with research on human trafficking’s impact on social media by identifying patterns and trends, which led to her writing a collaborative academic paper. Currently, she is investigating support systems for domestic violence victims to expose service gaps and raise awareness. Janeth aims to highlight overlooked challenges and amplify underrepresented voices through her work.