By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Two female senators are calling for the FBI to collect more information on domestic violence and stalking crimes.
“The seriousness and devastating effects of these crimes, as well as the propensity for repeat victimization, expose a dangerous gap in the FBI’s crime data collection programs,” Sens.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) wrote in a letter sent Monday to FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, The Hill reports.
The senators wrote that the FBI collects data on crimes ranging “from homicide to loitering … but no data are collected on stalking and very limited data are collected on domestic violence.”
The senators said a quarter of women are victims of domestic violence, and one in six women are victims of stalking.
“The FBI is already authorized by law to collect data on new crimes without congressional approval, and it has already done so multiple times,” the senators wrote.
“For example, in January 2016, the FBI began collecting crime data on animal cruelty, with the justification that animal cruelty is an early indicator of violent crime,” they added.
