Missouri could become the second state to establish a domestic violence offender registry through House Bill 3012.
If a person is convicted of domestic violence and has been convicted at least once before, they would have to register as a persistent offender. The database would share their name, birth date, offense, conviction date, county of conviction and photograph. It would not share an offender’s social security number or home address for privacy.
People can search for potential offenders in the database by looking up a name and county.
According to the World Population Review, 53% of women and 26% of men in Missouri have experienced domestic violence in their lifetime.
Cynthia Bennett is the executive director of Jadasa, a domestic violence victim advocacy agency. She said the bill could help people search for someone to see if they have a history of domestic violence.
"I think it could probably curtail some of the domestic violence that’s going on where we’re finding after the fact that the abuser has been in multiple relationships before or had been in several situations before, and nobody knew about it,” Bennett said.
The legislation is also referred to as Adriaunna's and BreAnna's Law.
Amanda Martin, a survivor of domestic abuse and volunteer victim advocate named the proposal after Adriaunna, a 12-year-old who was kidnapped and murdered by a repeat domestic abuser.
“I named this proposal Adriaunna’s Law because I refused to let her become just another statistic,” Martin testified in support of the bill. “Her name should not only be remembered in grief, but in prevention, accountability, and action. This law ensures that when we say her name in this chamber, it is tied to protection, not just tragedy.”
Persistent offenders would also have to pay a $150 fee. $50 would cover administrative costs and $100 would go toward a domestic violence prevention fund.
Republican Representative Ann Kelley co-sponsored the bill and said the fee will help the state continue to support domestic violence programs, especially if the legislature moves forward with Gov. Mike Kehoe’s proposed funding cut to the Victims of Crime Act or VOCA.
“We already have the VOCA funds, which is done federally, and that fund has been decreasing, especially this year. And so that would just enable us to increase that fund up and the grant system is already there, and it’s ran through the prosecuting attorneys in local counties,” Kelley said.
Tennessee is currently the only state with a domestic violence offender registry, which was created this year.
“I don’t think that there is any opposition on this bill,” Kelley said. “I think people want to help protect individuals and this is a bill that will do that. I talked to some people who don’t like databases that will probably vote for this bill because they believe it’s necessary.”
The bill passed unanimously in the Crime and Public Safety Committee and now moves to the House floor.
