Victims of domestic violence are increasingly turning to DeKalb’s Safe Passage for help.

The number of people seeking assistance from Safe Passage, the domestic violence center in DeKalb County, increased 63 percent this year, said Pam Wiseman, executive director of Safe Passage.

Mike Coghlan, DeKalb County state’s attorney, said the increase is caused by a growing number of victims reporting the crime.

Coghlan said the increase is the result of a domestic violence task force formed by Coghlan and Safe Passage in July of last year. Services included in the task force are counseling, law enforcement and prosecution.

Coghlan said it is typical that victims of domestic violence do not report the crime. The task force, however, reaches out and informs the community of the effective services in the county.

Wiseman said the task force helps to increase awareness, although the problem is not eliminated.

“We believe we see less than 5 percent of the victims of domestic violence,” Wiseman said.

Wiseman said 50 percent of all men will be violent at least once in their lives and 25 percent will be violent at least once a month. One-third of the men who batter women can be helped with counseling, she said.

Wiseman said the task force also plans to foster awareness at NIU to assist victims of dating violence.

Dating violence can even start as early as high school, Wiseman said.

Anna Beth Payne, associate director of the Counseling and Student Development Center, said there is no data about dating violence at NIU, but she has seen clients who were victimized by their boyfriends.

Rosemary Lane, director of the University Health Services, said domestic violence on campus is extraordinarily rare because most students live in dorms.

According to the DeKalb police department’s 1989 report, there were 96 more cases of domestic violence in 1989 than in 1988.