After the recent death of Lauren McClauskey, a University of Utah student, due to domestic violence, UConn DPP Assistant Professor Dr. Kerri Raissian commented on what resources need to be available to prevent future cases. Lauren reached out to university police when she felt endangered by a man that she was in a previous relationship with. However, since the police were not trained to handle incidents of domestic violence, they did not help Lauren with her situation. Dr. Raissian, who is a specialist in child and family interpersonal violence, discusses how universities need to financially bolster their police and counseling centers to deal with domestic abuse cases. She references the resources at UConn, where the Dean of Students offers victim advocacy services to help survivors of domestic violence emotionally, as the police work on their cases. This is a very unfortunate tragedy to have occurred, and we are glad that professionals like Dr. Raissian are working to increase domestic violence awareness, education, and resources in colleges and universities.

Dr. Raissian’s comments appeared in the January 22, 2019 Inside Higher Ed article by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Multiple Warnings, No Action