why existing laws and systems failed to protect their loved ones. Last October, a judge sentenced Marrapese to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Ise’ s murder, bringing some closure to a case that has haunted her family. But Palazzo will never know what might have happened if more had been done to keep Marrapese away from her daughter.
“ Knowing that he will never walk any street again, that’ s all I can offer,” she says.
Robyn left an abusive relationship in 2017 and now advocates on issues around domestic violence as a member of Sisters Overcoming Abusive Relationships. BELOW: Kristi Di Cenzo, left, a survivor of domestic violence, is the coordinator of SOAR.
According to the RICADV, 38.2 percent of Rhode Island women have experienced intimate partner violence during their lifetime. Nationally, more than one in three women( nearly 43.5 million) and more than one in six men( 20.7 million) have been victims of intimate partner violence— defined as physical violence, sexual violence or stalking— according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases cut across boundaries of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status and are far more numerous than most people realize, advocates say. In 2024, state and local police responded to domestic violence calls in all thirty-nine of Rhode Island’ s cities and towns.
“ This is a behavior that is grossly underreported. Whatever data exists, we know that actual incidents are much higher because so many people don’ t report it,” says Vanessa Volz, president and CEO of Sojourner House, one of the state’ s leading victim services providers.
In 1976, a group of residents and Brown University students founded Sojourner House to address what they saw as a silent epidemic of the numbers leveled off. In Rhode Island, lawmakers have attempted to address the issue in the past decade through efforts such as the Protect RI Families Act— which requires individuals convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor or subject to a protective order to surrender their firearms— and the“ Red Flag” law that allows law enforcement to petition to remove someone’ s firearms when they pose a risk to themselves or others. These laws have been championed by domestic violence advocates who see them as essential tools for protecting victims and preventing cases from escalating into extreme violence.
And yet, every year, Rhode Islanders lose their lives to domestic violence, often following a long trail of documented concerns. Those left behind, like Palazzo, are left wondering
104 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2026