In 2005, the Oregon legislature passed Senate Bill 1047 authorizing the formation of a domestic violence fatality review team. This bill was later codified in ORS 418.714 (for local teams) and ORS 418.718 (for the state team). In January 2011 the statewide Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team began to take shape. The urgent need for this team and its work came into sharp focus during 2010 when the state suffered the loss of 38 Oregonians due to intimate-partner-violence-related deaths. During that year, nearly one in three of all homicides in Oregon was related to intimate partner violence (Xun Shen and Lisa Millet, Violent Deaths in Oregon: 2010, Oregon Health Authority, 2012). Over the course of 2011, the Team worked to develop its protocols and guidelines. In April 2012 the Team conducted its first fatality review.
