English
EspañolWhy isn't there a DV offender registry? V wants to "warn others" of abuser
[ADJUST THIS FIRST SENTENCE BASED ON WHAT THE WRITER SAYS: It sounds like you are looking for a way to protect others by flagging this person as abusive in some publicly accessible way.] Unfortunately, there is no national domestic violence registry or another way to “warn” others about the potentially dangerous nature of an individual. This issue of whether there should be a national domestic violence registry has been raised at various times by different people and organizations within the domestic violence movement. It’s possible that some states have a state-wide domestic violence registry but it’s not as if individuals could “enter” someone’s name into any such registry; it would likely be entered by the state upon conviction for a domestic violence crime or perhaps once a protection order is issued. (If you want to see any example of what a registry might look like, you can read about the one that New Jersey lawmakers proposed creating in 2023 on this local NJ newspaper website.) In the meantime, it may be helpful for anyone entering into a new relationship to be aware of the more subtle signs of abuse in order to try to be able to spot a potentially abusive partner, although I recognize that this isn’t always possible or easy to do.
[IF THE PERSON MENTIONS MEETING THEM ON A DATING APP, YOU CAN ADD: There could also be a way to report the person to the dating app in the hope that they’d remove their profile so others cannot match with them. This article on the ProPublica website details how to report someone on various dating apps. Please note that we are not affiliated with that website and cannot vouch for the information contained in it.]
