October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon has been promoting awareness through social media by sharing facts daily about domestic violence.

“Intimate partner violence made up 22 percent of violent crimes against women and five percent against men in 2010,” Carlyon noted on Oct. 1.

In Navajo County, the number of arrests flagged as domestic violence increased by 52 percent between 2001 and 2010, making it the highest percentage increase among all Arizona counties, according to a 2013 report produced by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC). Only Pinal County came close, with a 50.5 percent increase, but the report notes that Pinal County also experienced a rapid population increase during the 10-year period. Statewide, the total number of arrests flagged as domestic violence incidents increased by 17.8 percent over that same time period.

In 2001, there were a total of 53 domestic violence convictions in Navajo County, compared to a peak of 166 in 2007, which then dropped to 107 in 2010.

Although the number of convictions has risen sharply, the percentage of arrests leading to conviction has increased at a slower rate. For example, in 2001 a total of 18 percent of arrests in Navajo County flagged as relating to domestic violence led to a conviction. The next year, that percentage jumped to 44.2 percent. It eventually leveled out to 25.9 percent in 2007, 25.7 percent in 2008, 32.1 percent in 2009 and 22.7 percent in 2010. During those years, however, the report notes that a large percentage of arrest reports have “missing dispositions,” which means records were not available indicating whether a conviction was obtained.

Overall, in Navajo County there were 1,137 convictions for domestic violence between 2001 and 2010, with an average of 25.5 percent of arrests leading to conviction.

The report noted that statewide, most domestic violence charges were dismissed, “The most common recorded outcome of an arrest count flagged for domestic violence from 2001 to 2010 was court dismissal of the charge (38.2 percent).”

According to the report, there are several reasons a charge may be dismissed, including completion of a diversion program or a referral to drug court. The report further notes that the second-most common outcome is a finding of guilt. Approximately 23 percent of domestic violence arrests resulted in a conviction, according to statewide statistics.

The ACJC report did not break down offender statistics by county, but noted that statewide between 2001 and 2010, a total of 88.4 percent of the individuals arrested for domestic violence were male and 11.6 percent female.