Bossier Parish Community College will bring domestic violence education to the forefront with a powerful presentation next week. The presentation, “Domestic Violence: Truth and Awareness,” will be held at 12:00 pm on Thursday, March 14 in the Stephen W. Slaughter Theatre (Building C), 6220 E. Texas St., Bossier City, LA. It is free and open to the public.
BPCC Associate Professor Richard Pool will be the guest speaker, and will share information to help educate those on the topic. Pool has studied this type of violence for many years. He holds a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Anna Maria College, Paxton, Massachusetts, and a bachelor of science degree in Administration of Justice from Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island. Pool has been a member of the criminal justice faculty at BPCC since 2002.
In addition to his full time-teaching schedule, Pool speaks at local and statewide public forums on the topics of domestic and workplace violence. As part of his academic research in the area of domestic violence, Pool has presented conference papers on family violence and small town policing in Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Oxford, England, and has been a guest of and collaborated with Detective Inspectors of the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force, London Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard. Currently, Pool is focusing on the area of human trafficking, its global toll of human suffering, and current methods to combat it through improved intelligence gathering and shared information with our European, Asian, and African law enforcement partners.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States.”
“Domestic violence is still a blight in our communities; countless victims’ voices so often are not heard and their trauma is real,” says Pool. “Domestic calls to police can be THE most dangerous calls any officer will face on a day to day basis. A victim’s only recourse is to immediately notify authorities who can step in and deal properly with a perpetrator and the assist victim(s). Ninety-seven percent of domestic violence victims are women and children. Fifty percent of homeless women have a history of trauma from this violence. It’s time to educate, empower, and encourage ANY victim of this type of abuse to step forward and reach out for the help that is available.”
Richard Pool, Associate Professor at BPCC