New campaign in Eastern New Mexico hopes to decrease domestic violence

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Domestic violence cases have doubled in the Ninth Judicial District, made up of Curry and Roosevelt counties since the pandemic began.

Now the District Attorney’s Office has launched a new campaign to combat the issue there and try and save lives.

“We are really going to show them on paper, where they are in the cycle and what’s going to happen next because really a domestic that’s in a strangulation type phase or a physical injury type phase is going to be our next homicide,” said Andrea Reeb, Ninth Judicial District Attorney.

With domestic violence cases on the rise in eastern New Mexico, Reeb is trying to curb the issue before it gets worse.

“People don’t realize that one out of every three women, four women. One out of every four men are abused and it’s a realistic problem and right now we’re seeing a lot of it,” said Reeb.

Since the pandemic broke out and people have been spending more time at home, domestic violence has gone up.

With a vaccine now, Hannah Finkenbinder at Amarillo Family Support Services says cases are increasing even more.

“At the beginning, we were seeing numbers drop because of the isolation. Abusers use a lot of tactics to scare their partners from leaving the home, their children from leaving the home,” said Hannah Finkenbinder, safe house manager, domestic violence and sexual assault safe house, Family Support Services.

Break the Cycle also focuses on showing children that domestic violence is never OK.

“By addressing it and showing them, ‘OK here’s where you’re at in the cycle. Do you want your children to turn out to be in the same situation?’ We’re able to hopefully convince some of these victims, that ‘I have got to break the cycle for my kids’,” said Reeb.

Because even if children aren’t the direct target, they are still impacted.

“The children do not go unaffected by violence in the home. Whether it is physically directed towards them or not, it takes a huge emotional toll on the children,” said Finkenbinder.

Reeb says even if this campaign only helps a few people, she will feel that it was successful.

More information on the Break the Cycle campaign can be found on the Ninth Judicial District Attorney Office’s website.

Copyright 2021 KFDA. All rights reserved.