Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is scheduled to speak about domestic violence Feb. 9 at the Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center at DePaul University’s first annual Valentine’s Day Distinguished Family Violence Lecture. The program begins at 3 p.m. at the Egan Urban Center, 243 S. Wabash Ave., 9th Floor, and Madigan is scheduled to speak at 4 p.m. She will announce a new research collaboration with the center that could result in better response to domestic violence complaints. The event is free and open to the public.

The year-long research project will assemble and review data from police and court systems; and interview court personnel and monitor court proceedings to help assess the effectiveness of the governmental response to domestic violence in Cook, Kankakee, St. Clair and Saline counties. The baseline data also will be used for future accountability monitoring; for isolating problems and concerns within the system that require remedies; and to identify improvements to data collection and legal changes to enable a more efficient system of accountability review.

“The Violence Against Women Accountability Project is a critical tool we can use to help answer basic questions about the extent of violence against women in Illinois,” said Madigan who is the first female to be elected attorney general in Illinois. “This information can be used to improve the lives of battered women and their children.”

DePaul law students will take an active role in compiling statistics for the study. A complete report will be released by Madigan in February of 2005. The collaboration will give students the opportunity to become instrumental in legal and social change and to connect with key members of the legal community.

“This project is representative of the types of partnerships the center aims to attract,” said Jane Rutherford, the center’s director. “Our students will gain practical legal experience while helping to make a real difference in the way domestic violence response is delivered in Illinois.”

The program also will feature a lecture by Claire Renzetti, a sociology professor at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and a leading authority on violence against women. Renzetti will address such issues as intimate partner violence; the role of class, race and ethnicity in the domestic violence equation; and the effects of pornography and the sex industry on domestic violence. Renzetti also will address the recent controversy over whether women are as violent as men, using research that demonstrates that there are qualitative differences in women’s and men’s use of intimate violence.

Established in 2000, the Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center focuses on law reform, system change and direct service in major areas of family law. Teaming with a range of community-based organizations, the center works to serve as a central point for research, needs assessment, advocacy and public education to improve Chicago’s response to women and girls who are victims of violence.

For more information about the program, contact Jo Ann Raphael at 312/362-5205.