Hairstylists Aid in the Fight Against Abuse

When I was District Attorney of Delaware County, I encountered a case that dramatically changed my outlook on the prosecution of domestic violence. A woman went to police and agreed to testify against her husband on charges of domestic abuse. The husband was arrested, but shortly after he was taken into custody the victim changed her mind and refused to testify. With practically zero evidence to hold him, the husband was released from custody. Within just a few days of his release, he raped and murdered his wife.

This case caused me to completely reexamine our strategy to fight domestic abuse. In many cases, the victims of abuse are physically or psychologically unable to come forward and provide the evidence necessary to convict the abuser. Instead, we began to examine ways by which we could build our case even without the testimony of the victim. One of the approaches we took in tackling this issue while I was United States Attorney was looking for places which victims of domestic abuse would frequent without being accompanied by their abusers.

An excellent example of this is hair salons: women visit their local hair salons on a regular basis, and they are rarely if ever accompanied by their male partner. So we partnered up with hairstylists and beauty schools and we trained them in recognizing the signs of domestic violence and how to report a suspected case of abuse. Stylists will spot the tell-tale giveaways of abuse and their clients can confide in them without immediate fear of retribution.

Earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to attend the grand opening of a new Empire Beauty School in Springfield. Empire is one of the organizations we teamed up with while I was U.S. Attorney, and they continue to be an active partner. I appreciated the opportunity to be a part of their grand opening and commend Empire for the work they do to arm women with the tools to stand up against domestic abuse.