COLUMBUS, Ohio (AVC News) — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has announced $1 million in additional funding for domestic violence shelters and new grant programs aimed at improving law enforcement responses to domestic violence incidents.
The initiatives, announced during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, follow new research from the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Office of Criminal Justice Services showing that domestic violence accounts for more than half of violent crime arrests in Ohio.
Researchers analyzed approximately 2 million violent crime arrests recorded in Ohio from 1974 through 2023. The data showed that just over half involved a domestic violence charge and that 70% of people arrested for domestic violence were repeat violent offenders.
The percentage has remained high in recent years, with domestic violence involved in 54% of violent crime arrests from 2014 through 2023 and 56% during the final five years of the study. Half of Ohio’s 88 counties currently have domestic violence crime rates above the state average, according to the research.
DeWine directed the Office of Criminal Justice Services to establish several funding opportunities in response to the findings.
The state will provide a one-time $18,000 grant to each of Ohio’s 55 recognized domestic violence shelters to help cover emergency shelter and other immediate needs for survivors and their dependents.
Additional grant programs will support the purchase of ballistic shields for law enforcement officers, training in assessments designed to identify survivors at high risk of future violence, and expanded partnerships between law enforcement agencies and victim service advocates.
The co-responder program will help fund training and staffing for partnerships that bring victim advocates to domestic violence scenes to provide trauma-informed support, crisis intervention and safety planning.
DeWine also directed the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board to develop a statewide standard for responding to and investigating domestic violence incidents.
The standard will incorporate recommendations from a handbook released in April by the Ohio Domestic Violence Network in partnership with the Office of Criminal Justice Services. The handbook covers survivor support, strangulation, victims’ rights and other legal and investigative best practices.
The state will also support seven free regional law enforcement training sessions on the handbook.
Mary O’Doherty, executive director of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, welcomed the additional shelter funding and the use of the organization’s handbook in developing a statewide standard.
More information about the funding opportunities is available through the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services’ Grants News website.
Last Updated on October 22, 2026 by AVC News
