What Is a Domestic Violence Crime?

Domestic violence is any offense committed against a family or household member that causes or could cause harm to the victim.

Under Rhode Island's Domestic Violence Prevention Act, a family or household member includes:

• Current or former spouses
• Adults related by blood or law
• Adults who currently live together or have lived together in the past 3 years
• People who have a child together (regardless of whether or not they're married or have lived together)
• People who are in a dating or engagement relationship or who have been in such a relationship in the past year

Domestic violence crimes are not separate from the criminal offenses listed in the Rhode Island General Laws. However, state legislators enacted a domestic violence act to recognize the different ways such crimes have been treated when committed against family or household members than when committed against strangers. The Domestic Violence Prevention Act is a way to ensure that harmful conduct between family or household members is treated just as seriously as all other offenses.

If any of the following is committed against a family or household member, it's a domestic violence crime:

• Arson: This involves knowingly causing a fire or explosion that could harm others or damage buildings.
• Assault: This involves threatening or attempting to use force and placing another person in fear of harm.
• Burglary: This involves unlawfully entering a structure with the intent to commit a crime.
• Child-snatching: This occurs when a person takes a child under 18 years of age to deprive another person of custody of the minor.
• Cyberstalking: This involves using a computer or electronic means to harass another person.
• Disorderly conduct: Conduct includes fighting in public, disturbing occupants of private residences, using offensive words that can provoke a violent response, obstructing public access ways, interfering with lawful meetings or gatherings, and looking through another's window.
• Domestic assault by strangulation: This involves choking or suffocating a family or household member.
• Electronic tracking of motor vehicles: This involves unlawfully installing or concealing a tracking device on another person's car to follow their movements.
• Felony assault: This includes assault with intent to commit a felony such as murder or burglary, assault with a dangerous weapon or substance, and assault with a dangerous weapon in a house.
• Homicide: This involves the deliberate killing of another, or taking someone's life while perpetrating an offense such as sexual assault, burglary, or kidnapping.
• Kidnapping: Conduct involves confining another person against their will.
• Refusal to relinquish a telephone: This involves denying a person access to a phone or destroying a phone when the device was going to be used to make an emergency call.
• Sexual assault: This involves engaging in unlawful sexual penetration with another by force, coercion, or concealment, or when the victim is unable to resist because of mental or physical incapacity.
• Stalking: This involves engaging in certain acts over time that will annoy, bother, or alarm another purpose and there is no lawful reason for the conduct.
• Trespass: This involves unlawfully remaining on land or property of another.
• Vandalism: This involves causing injury or destruction to another person's property.
• Violating a no-contact order: This involves violating a court order prohibiting a person from communicating with an alleged victim.