Closing Gaps, Saving Lives

A Complex Challenge at the Heart of the Pretrial System

Each day across the U.S., three women are murdered by a current or former intimate partner. [1] In jurisdictions nationwide, domestic violence and intimate partner violence (DV/IPV) represent some of the most complex, high-risk cases to enter the pretrial system. With victims’ lives at stake and individuals legally presumed innocent, how do officials in criminal legal systems ensure community safety while upholding the rights of accused people?

In Prince William County (PWC), Virginia, where 27 percent of homicides are related to domestic violence, [2] this question isn’t theoretical—it’s a daily reality. Over the past few years, the county has made significant strides in addressing DV/IPV more effectively, thanks to deeply invested stakeholders and a multidisciplinary, community-led initiative that is transforming both philosophy and practice.

Mapping the Problem, Connecting Key Players

In 2022, PWC was selected by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) as one of three statewide pilot sites to implement the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) [3] and conduct a comprehensive system mapping effort to identify opportunities for improvement in pretrial policy and practice. “We were chosen because of the robust collaboration that goes on in Prince William County already,” explains Steve Austin, Director of PWC Criminal Justice Services. “This collaboration dates back to 2015.” 

This mapping process brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including the chief magistrate, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, police officers, victim advocates, ACTS (a crisis and human services provider), and the PWC Office of Community Safety.  

“When you’re implementing a new pretrial risk assessment instrument, you’re not just looking at implementing the tool, you’re looking at how your pretrial justice system is functioning,” explains Austin. “So we did a pretrial systems mapping as part of that initiative.”

This mapping revealed critical gaps and silos in the county’s DV/IPV response system—and opened the door for collective solutions. With support from Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research, the county established a subcommittee on DV/IPV and a new DV/IPV-focused priority area within the Office of Community Safety, which served as the focal point for further improvements within the county’s response system. Since then, PWC has pursued a thoughtful, collaborative approach to improving its responses to DV/IPV.

Creating a Central Hub: The DV Coordinator Role

In 2025, to turn mapping into momentum, the county established the Coordinated Community Response Analyst position, filled by Rachel Taylor. Based in the Office of Community Safety, Taylor focuses on building inter-agency connections for DV/IPV services and identifying gaps that prevent victims from accessing the support they need. She coordinates and enhances communication among local agencies, collects data from mapping sessions to build a roadmap for the community, and oversees the development of the PWC Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team (DVFRT).

“The work we do is victim-centered, but we’re also looking at the needs of the perpetrator,” Taylor explained. “We’re going to each agency, identifying concerns, and developing interventions to stop problems before they allow someone to fall through the cracks.”

Taylor has identified gaps in the county’s DV/IPV response system, like a lack of crisis housing for victims who flee abusive situations, and a lack of infrastructure within services that deal with a large number of DV-related clientele but aren’t primarily DV-focused. Taylor explained that she receives calls from services for unhoused people, where up to 15 percent of people are DV victims. When the shelter or crisis housing is full, Taylor explains, “you can’t get a call at two o’clock in the morning and do nothing.”

“It’s not about choosing which battle to fight—it’s figuring out how to fight each one.”

Her collaborative approach involves engaging in conversations with community stakeholders and building relationships to close gaps that might hinder victims from accessing the services they need. This includes holding monthly check-ins with agencies and assisting them in developing shared solutions. Taylor emphasizes that this approach is within reach even if a community doesn’t have specific DV/IPV funding; often, she says, the progress she makes starts with a conversation: “That’s the thing—conversations don’t cost any money.”

Tools for Smarter, Safer Conditioning

PWC has also adopted two key risk assessment tools: the Public Safety Assessment (PSA)3 and the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA). [4] While the PSA provides a general assessment of someone’s likelihood of succeeding on pretrial release, the ODARA focuses on DV-specific risks like instances of strangulation or firearm access, which can increase lethality by 750 percent [5] and 500 percent, [6] respectively.

“We’ve implemented the ODARA with our probation caseload,” Austin said. “It helps us direct the right kinds of services and the dosage of treatment for the probation client. There’s no tool that is specific to pretrial for domestic violence, but you can tailor the tools we do have to give the judges a little bit of insight about the risk. We hope to implement ODARA with pretrial soon.”

By combining these tools, the county aims to ensure that judges have the best available data to make informed, individualized decisions on release conditions—avoiding blanket policies like electronic monitoring, which can create false alarms and financial burdens for those who are accused, as they often have to pay the fees for such technology.

Ongoing Training & System Mapping

To address gaps identified by the system mapping, PWC has formed dedicated workgroups on compliance, noncompliance, and domestic violence, allowing committed stakeholders from a multitude of community agencies, nonprofits, and victim services, along with criminal legal system officials, to delve deeper into specific issues. Advocacy from Judge Jacqueline W. Lucas, who secured Virginia STOP Violence Against Women Act (VSTOP) funding for training in both 2023 and 2025, has been pivotal in sustaining momentum.

In March 2025, the county hosted a fatality review training led by Arizona State University, followed in April 2025 by a new round of system mapping facilitated by APPR, bringing even more stakeholders to the table. 

Steve Austin, Director of PWC Criminal Justice Services, described the most recent mapping exercise as invigorating. “It really just demonstrated how much knowledge our people and our community have about domestic violence. A lot of the nonprofits and some advocacy groups that are not part of the normal array of people we work with showed up. It was somewhere between 25 and 30 community partners.”

“All of these little pieces started coming together,” said Coordinated Community Response Analyst Rachel Taylor. “It’s about finding the mechanisms and levers to get people to start talking to each other.”

Results—and What Comes Next

Early signs of impact are already emerging. According to one representative from ACTS, the county’s domestic violence emergency service provider, the most recent system mapping effort led to immediate behavior change:

“We’ve seen community partners calling our hotline with the victim,” they noted—a sign that the “circle of trust” among agencies, law enforcement, and survivors is strengthening. This type of “warm handoff” represents the bridging of a gap, with victims who might not have made the call themselves now guided by an officer to the services they need to ensure their safety and begin the path to healing. 

The county is also receiving six months of targeted technical assistance on developing high-risk DV fatality review teams, intending to apply their learnings to pretrial and improving intervention before tragedy strikes.