Photo of Charla Faust (Photo Courtesy of Davi Jones)Charla Faust thought she was rid of her abusive ex-boyfriend when she ended the relationship.
On May 20, Faust was shot and killed by John Brazel, who had approached her outside of her apartment about three miles from the Tempe campus and demanded that she get into his car, Davi Jones, Charla’s sister, said.
Since Faust’s death, Jones and her family have dedicated themselves to keeping her legacy alive and trying to spread the word about domestic violence and ways to prevent it or to stay safe.
“Her justice lies in justice for others,” Jones said.
Jones said no one ever had a bad word to say about Faust. Jones often meets people who talk at length about how good of a person Faust was and how much she affected them.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and with heightened scrutiny of domestic violence cases after some highly publicized NFL players being caught abusing their romantic partners, Jones said she hopes that the conversation gains greater attention and shifts the public’s thought about it.
“It will get a lot louder,” Jones said. “It will be a message that rings clear, and we need to get it out there as often and as much as we can.”
Jones said young people need to trust their intuition when they think they are in an abusive relationship themselves, or if one of their friends is in an abusive relationship.
“Don’t just sit there and watch,” she said. “If you see something, say something. Your words could save a person’s life, or their family’s lives.”
Jones said no matter what, there will always be some person in anyone’s life who will be able to help them out of an abusive situation, if the person can just reach out and let loved ones know they are in trouble.
“When you think you’re all alone and you’re too afraid to go to your own family, don’t be,” she said. “No matter how badly it’s broken and no matter how distant you feel, family isn’t just something, it’s everything.”
Rebecca Duckworth is a survivor of domestic violence, and has since taken to sharing her experiences on her blog to help people understand the issue more thoroughly.
Duckworth said while she believes increased awareness of the crime may not immediately help people who are already in abusive situations, it can help survivors recover and help stop the cycle from continuing.
“It means validation,” she said in an email. “It means no longer feeling like the only one. It means it's just a little bit easier to talk about it in polite company. Increased awareness is what every advocate against domestic violence is working towards, and one day it will stop being cycled out of the news for the latest ignorant tweet from the newest famous face.”
Duckworth said people need to educate themselves about domestic violence and be willing to speak up about it if the society can ever hope to end the crime entirely.
“We can stop ignoring domestic violence, stop blaming the victims,” she said. “We can educate people on the dynamics of domestic violence — what makes a victim stay, what makes an abuser abuse, how to spot victims, how to spot abusers.”
Duckworth said people can be hesitant to report domestic violence, which is not usually the case with other violent crimes.
Maricopa County Attorney’s Office spokesman Jerry Cobb said a lack of reporting and a later lack of desire to press charges can lead to many abusers never actually going through the judicial process.
Recently, the County Attorney’s Office instituted a program that has helped bring the prosecution rate of domestic violence offenders from about 14 percent to nearly 60 percent, Cobb said.
The program, called the Strangulation Treatment and Offender Prosecution program, or STOP, included the county purchasing high tech forensic cameras that are used to photograph a person that reports domestic violence to see if there are any signs of burst capillaries, a sign that the person may have been forcibly choked, Cobb said.
With photographic evidence, it is much easier to bring the person to justice, rather than just the testimony of people involved in what occurred in the home, usually with no witnesses, Cobb said.
As for Jones, she continues to honor her sister by spreading awareness and raising funds in Charla’s memory to benefit victims of domestic violence.
Reach the reporter at cvanek@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @CorinaVanek
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