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Storm doesn't stop domestic abuse calls

Although other crimes were down locally, domestic violence continued even as Charley approached.

TAMPA - Hurricane Charley kept bad guys off the streets for a day. But it appears even the threat of a natural disaster did not temper their behavior indoors.

Domestic violence reports stayed steady as hurricane warnings on Friday put a damper on criminal activity across Hillsborough County.

"Crime goes down in correlation to the bad weather coming in," said Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin. But he noted that there are exceptions. "When people are locked up inside or cooped up inside, they tend to get on each other's nerves."

The Hillsborough County jail booked 89 people on Friday, about half the arrests reported on recent Fridays. But the number of charges related to domestic violence - just more than a dozen - was much like any other Friday night. Even the menance of a hurricane could not break the cycle of domestic violence, when victims may have felt unable to leave home as a ferocious storm approached.

"It would only confirm the sense that they are trapped or they are helpless," said Bonnie Saks, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of South Florida.

But Saks, who also sees sexual trauma cases in private practice, said hurricane evacuations also might inspire victims to plan escapes from dangerous situations at home.

"It might plant a seed for people that they could get out," she said.

Even though the jail was still recording a typical number of abuse cases, the Mary and Martha House, an emergency shelter for abused women in Ruskin, did not see an increase in phone calls as Hurricane Charley's winds skirted around Tampa Bay.

"There was no more than usual," said Executive Director Priscilla Mixon She said some abusers may have been on good behavior as the storm approached. "They know the danger, and they are in more of a protective mode than an abusive mode."

Letitia Stein can be reached at 813 661-2443 or lstein@sptimes.com