With less than a week remaining of domestic violence awareness month, many groups, ranging from the Tempe police to Great Clips hair salons, are addressing the problem.
On Saturday, the 85 Great Clips locations in the Phoenix area donated a portion of the proceeds from each haircut to Sojourner Center, a Phoenix-based domestic violence prevention organization.
The fund-raiser followed a Tempe police task force roundup on Oct. 20 when police arrested eight suspects wanted for domestic violence charges and cleared 14 outstanding warrants.
Tempe police Sgt. Dan Masters said fighting domestic violence is important to the department and future task forces may be planned.
"We were only able to pull warrants from 2003 and 2004 because of budget limitations," he said. "There were 158 outstanding suspects that we attempted to trace, but many of them had moved."
Incidents reported to the Tempe police have remained fairly static each month, Masters said, but there were some seasons that stand out.
"Some theories suggest that people are more at risk during summertime and the holiday season as the temperature or family problems cause stress levels to increase," Masters said.
ASU police reported six incidents of domestic violence in October and say there are more incidents still under investigation.
But even with the increased emphasis on awareness during October, some students were not aware this month was devoted to the issue.
Pre-pharmacist sophomore Rebecca Goodrich said she had no idea October had significance for domestic violence awareness.
"I personally don't hear about it very often other than in the news," she said. "When I have seen it, alcohol has probably played a large factor," she said. "People have done things they would never have done if they were sober."
Mechanical engineering freshman Marquis Howe said he heard a lot of stories about domestic violence happening when he was growing up on a Navajo reservation.
"I haven't seen much on campus, but on the reservation, I heard about it all the time," Howe said.
He said he thought women often didn't seek help because they were afraid of worse abuse.
Masters said he encourages anyone who feels they have been victimized to seek help.
"The department can help get victims the help they need," he said. "I think too large of a number of incidents don't get reported to the police.
Reach the reporter at mark.saxon@asu.edu.
