Jenkins Backs Domestic Violence Bill

Louisville state representative Joni Jenkins has pre-filed a bill that would extend domestic violence protective rights to dating couples, instead of only those who are married. Lisa Holmes with the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association says its an important segment of the population that hasn’t been protected in the past."Statistics are telling us that 33-percent of teenage girls report experiencing physical violence at the hand of a dating partner sometime within the high school years usually," says Holmes. "And that young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of relationship violence."Holmes says such couples have been able to get restraining orders, but not emergency protective orders. She says forty other states have already extended EPO protection to dating couples.