Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence

New York State Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline

2013 Hotline Data

(pdf)

What is the NYS Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline?

The Hotline responds to and is a resource for victims of domestic and sexual violence, concerned others and professionals, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Funded by the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, the hotline provides trained counselors who respond to a variety of service needs, including: crisis intervention, supportive counseling, information and referral services, and technical support to providers.

What services do callers ask for?

The services below were the most requested during 2013:

• General information about domestic violence and/or sexual assault.
• Information and resources regarding:
• Criminal and/or civil orders of protection;
• Linkage to emergency domestic violence shelter;
• How to obtain police escort to retrieve belongings, revise DIRs, file complaints, and find contact information for specific jurisdictions;
• Legal issues such as divorce, immigration, property, etc.;
• Custody of children/grandchildren, leaving state with children, etc.;
• Where to receive domestic violence and/or sexual violence advocacy services and how an advocate might be able to help.

Who is calling the Hotline?

There were five types of Hotline callers during this reporting period:

• Primary Victim: 78%
• Secondary Victim: 9%
• Professional: 6%
• Other: 6%
• Perpetrator: 2%

Caller Type Definitions

• Primary Victim: A person(s) who is/are the target of abuse by a perpetrator(s)
• Secondary Victim: A person(s) who has a relationship to primary victim, who identifies as being impacted by abuse. Common examples include family members, loved ones, concerned others, etc.
• Professional: An individual calling in professional/workplace capacity, seeking information
• Perpetrator: A person(s) who inflicts behavior onto primary victim(s)
• Other: Any caller who is looking for general information regarding domestic violence or sexual assault.

The primary victims who called the hotline identified themselves as either female (88%) or male (12%).

The ages of these primary victims are broken down into the following groups:

• 25-35 yrs: 30%
• 19-24 yrs: 19%
• 36-45 yrs: 18%
• 46-55 yrs: 13%
• 56-64 yrs: 6%
• 65+ yrs: 7%
• 0-18 yrs: 7%

Where are calls coming from?

Overall, the Hotline received the highest call volume (65%) from NYC and Long Island (Kings, New York, Queens, Bronx, Suffolk, Nassau and Richmond).

When looking at call volume for the rest of the state, the highest volume came from:

• Westchester: 14%
• Erie: 10%
• Albany: 8%
• Monroe: 6%
• Onondaga: 5%
• Orange: 4%
• Dutchess: 4%
• Schenectady: 3%
• Rensselaer: 3%

Other than New York, the states with the highest call volume to the NYS Domestic and Sexual  Violence Hotline for 2013 were:

Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut, and California.

Primary Languages

Hotline staff is able to respond directly to Spanish speaking callers. For all other callers of limited English proficiency, staff uses LanguageLine Solutions™ to provide interpretation services. 

During 2013, the Hotline responded to callers in the following languages (listed in order by volume of calls):

• Spanish          
• Mandarin
• Russian
• Haitian Creole
• Arabic
• French
• Bengali
• Polish
• Amharic
• Japanese
• Burmese
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Portuguese
• Punjabi
• Swedish
• Tigrinya
• Vietnamese

Callers said they heard about the Hotline from the following sources:

• Police: 53%
• Media/Internet: 13%
• Publications: 13%
• Other: 9%
• Community Agency: 8%
• Medical Professionals: 4%

Data Collection:  Data presented is calculated based on number of responses to individual questions and do not correlate to total call volume. Callers have the right not to answer certain questions pertaining to data points reported in this document.