Three killings on Hawaiʻi Island in May this year shocked the state. A 24-hour manhunt led to the arrest of suspect Jacob Baker.
Following those killings, it came to light that two women had earlier filed temporary restraining orders against Baker, but they had been denied by a judge.
The situation highlighted the limitations of temporary restraining orders as a process.
Now, a new survey is capturing how survivors of domestic violence feel about the laws in place to protect them, and whether there can be other avenues for help and healing. It’s the first statewide survey of its kind.
To learn more, HPR spoke with Angelina Mercado, the executive director of the Hawaiʻi State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, about what the survey showed.
The results revealed that cases of domestic violence, or intimate partner violence in particular, were disproportionate across the islands.
“You would think that Honolulu, being the biggest county, would have the highest occurrence of intimate partner violence, domestic violence, in the state, but actually Hawaiʻi County has a 17% prevalence, Maui County has 16%, and Kauaʻi has 15%, and finally Honolulu has 11%,” Mercado reported.
Difficulty accessing housing, transportation and other resources in rural communities could account for the disparity, she said.
“What we're constantly seeing year over year is a need for housing. Safe and long-term and affordable housing. That is the number one issue that our programs are dealing with.”
The survey was designed to address shortcomings with current laws protecting survivors of domestic violence. Their hope, said Mercado, was to reach out to survivors who had refused or been unable to seek legal recourse.
“As we continue to see people reporting and experiencing domestic violence year over year, we go back to the legislature and make changes to the various statutes that address it, but we haven't really gotten a response from enough people who are experiencing it on the ground,” she told HPR.
“We want to know from people who have not and why they have not, because we tend to … operate on information and data from people who have reported, and they don't always still, you know, engage with us system folks to provide more information. And this is a way to do it in a confidential manner.”
More information about the anonymous survey, which closes on October 1st, can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 19, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
