Domestic violence is about power and control.

That is its essence, advocates and law enforcement alike say when describing what causes the crime and why it can be such an intractable problem -- especially in communities like ours.

Events like the two-day training conference on domestic violence at the University of West Florida help to keep law enforcement officers, first responders, social workers and victim advocates up to date on changes in the law, data on prevention and intervention measures and what trends at the national level may filter down.

It brought 450 people over two days to UWF and is sponsored in partnership with UWF, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office the Escambia County Domestic Violence Coalition and Favor House of Northwest Florida.

Back 2006, Escambia County lead the nation in the number of domestic violence-related homicides, says Sheriff David Morgan. In 2013, the Sheriff’s Office saw a 12.56 percent decrease in domestic violence offenses, the first such decrease “anyone can remember in a long time,” Morgan says.

In a way, he says, there is a line from that grim statistical past to last year.

From that record year, the community at large, law enforcement, prosecutors and social advocates focused on strategically getting out the message about the warning signs of abusive relationships. Services and outreach improved, law enforcement focused on training in best practices, prosecution rates improved.

Morgan attributes the 2013 decrease to a broader, communitywide knowledge base about the crime of secrecy, power and control.

“We’re getting appropriate reports early,” he says of the law enforcement end. “We’re getting appropriate intervention, and the key is the victim. The victim has to follow through. I can have the world’s greatest program but I can’t protect you if you allow yourself to be seduced back into that relationship.

“We’re getting cooperation for the first time from victims.”

Still some seven years later, Escambia County maintains a troubling connection with domestic violence.

Both the Sheriff’s Office and the Pensacola Police Department saw decreases in the number of domestic violence offenses from 2012 to 2013

The county went from 3,096 offenses in 2012 to to 2,707 last year; the city went from 423 incidents in 2012 to 410 last year.

Putting that figure in context alongside the news from Gulf Coast Kid’s House that Escambia County has the 10th highest incidence of child abuse in the state, and it is clear that something dark is at work in our collective soul.

“Domestic violence and child abuse are at the top of my list,” says Morgan. “Those are unacceptable crimes to me. I would put people under the jail if I could for those crimes. There the most hateful as far as I’m concerned.”

Solutions to the problem can be culturally specific, Morgan says.

“Programs can work in New York and not work in the South. that’s a realization we have to come to, that some of the programs your community won’t accept certain interventions,” he says.

Dr. Kimberly Tatum is president of the Favor House board of directors and associate dean and associate professor in the UWF College of Professional Studies. She says there lots of factors at play in our area that could influence the prevalence of these crimes, including a high poverty rate and limited access to resources.

Tatum was among a group that after 2006 created a fatality review team to go through the cases and look for common threads. Some of those threads led to changes, she says, including training for officers in lethality assessment -- evaluating which situations are most likely to turn deadly.

“We know (for example) when the restraining order is issued or victim is in the process of leaving, statistically that is when the relationship is most dangerous and potentially most deadly,” Tatum says.

A model Tatum also says shows promise is the Family Justice Center -- a one-stop center where women in crisis can get counseling, social service help, and access law enforcement and prosecutors all under one roof. It is similar to the way Gulf Coast Kid’s House is set up to handle child abuse cases.

We know the Kid’s House model works. Of the 563 cases assigned to the Sheriff’s Office special victims unit from Kid’s House, 98 percent were successfully prosecuted to conviction by the State Attorney’s Office.

WANT TO HELP?

The White Rose Luncheon is May 16 at Sanders Beach Corrine Jones Community Center.

The luncheon is the signature event for FavorHouse of Northwest Florida, a not-for-profit organization providing shelter and services to domestic violence victims (women, children and men) and counseling to batterers in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Individual tickets for the event are $50. All proceeds go to FavorHouse’s domestic violence shelter program.

To learn more, call 434-1177 or visit  favorhouse.org.

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