Strife within any family is bound to happen from time to time, but in too many cases, and for no good reason, tensions build to the point of violence, which has fueled a rate of domestic abuse in Utah that has become alarming in its scope and devastating to the people involved.

The statistics paint a grim picture. One in three women and one in four men will be victims of physical abuse by an intimate partner in their lifetime. In Utah, roughly half of the homicides committed every year are connected to domestic violence. About one in six of all crimes committed in the United States every day are related to violence among people in close relationships. Since 2014, members of five Utah families have been killed in murder-suicide cases involving family members, compared to two such cases in the previous three years.

It is a problem that demands as much attention that law enforcement and social services agencies can offer it, and as much as society in general grants to any problem.

In Utah, a legislative appropriation has allowed for implementation of an interesting pilot program designed to offer police and other first-responders insight into conditions in a household that might escalate into something deadly. It involves the use of what’s called the Lethality Assessment Protocol, and there is encouraging evidence that it may reduce the disturbing number of cases tied to violence in the home.

Far too often, in the aftermath of a case involving a murder within a family, we learn that people close to those involved were aware of problems. The warning signs might be visible to friends and neighbors, but police officers and other authorities new to the situation may not have the training to recognize the symptoms. Even in cases where they are recognized, victims are frequently reluctant to press charges or seek help. The sad truth is that the majority of homicides occur after a continuum of behavior that persisted without intervention or interruption.

To that end, training has begun for first responders in the pilot project’s four target areas — Davis County, Cache County, West Jordan and Cedar City. Some jurisdictions in Utah have already been using the protocol, developed by researchers in Maryland. It equips police and paramedics with a set of questions to glean whether an incident they are called to is part of a pattern of domestic abuse. Should responders determine there is a likelihood of a festering problem, they can muster resources for counseling and legal help.

The protocol recognizes the value of early intervention, from which some continuing contact with victims and perpetrators can be maintained. Key in that category is legal assistance, specifically to provide victims access to restraining orders and other protective measures. Recent research found a direct correlation to the availability of legal help and the ability of a victim to escape an environment of escalating abuse.

The delicate and dangerous nuances of a fractured family dynamic are tough to spot and difficult to deal with, for both police and often for the people directly involved. Officers who have used the assessment protocol offer anecdotal accounts of how people suffering in an abusive relationship were unaware of their predicament until they were required to answer the assessment questions.

Breaking a chain of abuse requires not only awareness, but also the ability to take immediate action and follow up with ongoing assistance. Programs like the assessment protocol project represent a wise and necessary deployment of public resources against a problem that afflicts too many families, with too many tragic endings.