Protections for Utah's victims of abuse may expand beyond the household.

While abuse still happens in dating relationships, current state law only allows a protective order to be issued when the victim is living with or married to the abuser. That limitation can prevent law enforcement from adequately protecting a victim and potentially lead to a repeat or escalation of the violence, Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, said.

To correct that, Litvack will run a bill during the Legislature's 2006 general session that will create a new definition for protective orders and allow a judge to issue them for victims of "dating violence." The bill is expected to be formally heard for the first time during Wednesday's meeting of the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee.

"What we're seeing is a lot of situations that are domestic violence in nature, but they don't meet the co-habitation standard" required to issue a protective order, Litvack said. "They are people, especially high school or college students, who are just dating."

The bill would not change any criminal laws, only civil laws, Litvack said. Instead of being a "fix-all" for dating violence, it will simply "provide another tool" for law enforcement and victim advocates to help protect victims and, possibly, even help the abuser.

"If an individual has reached the point where violence is happening, and we can identify it early enough, we can maybe help them to recognize what they are doing," he said. "By calling it what it is — domestic violence — it might help stop those actions from becoming a pattern."

Ned Searle, director of the state Office on Violence Against Women and Families, said most dating violence victims are under 25, and incidents often happens on high school grounds or college campuses. In most ways, it is identical to domestic violence in a home — including the lack of reporting by victims — but the lack of a protective order option only exacerbates the problem.

At the same time, the protective order will only help if it is used, and often times victims, especially teenagers, are not aware of their options. If the protective orders are allowed for victims of dating violence, it will become another part of the ongoing educational efforts for domestic violence.

"Teen dating violence fits right in with domestic violence or sexual violence — it's a big secret," Searle said. "We hope that somehow we can get these messages out in conjunction with other domestic violence education."

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E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com