If you're only dating your abuser in South Carolina, state law says you can't get an order of protection — a tool that can prohibit an abuser from contacting a victim. That gap is drawing fresh attention from the top prosecutor in Greenville and Pickens counties, who says lawmakers need to fix it.
Current South Carolina law allows only people who live with, are married to, or share a child with their abuser to automatically seek an order of protection, according to FOX Carolina News. Dating partners who have never lived with their abuser fall outside that protection and must instead pursue a restraining order, a process the outlet reports can take longer to obtain. The distinction matters because an order of protection bars an abuser from contacting a victim in any way, and violating it can mean immediate arrest — a tool restraining orders don't offer with the same speed or scope.
Cindy Crick, who became the 13th Circuit solicitor in 2025, said closing that gap should be a priority. According to the station's report, Crick said dating partners are no less in danger simply because they don't share an address or a child with the person hurting them, and that dating partners can be just as capable of stalking, harassing, or killing their partners as spouses or cohabitants. She described restraining-order protections as less immediate and less comprehensive, and said the legal gap frustrates prosecutors trying to protect victims who fall through the cracks.
A Prosecutor Shaped by Shelter Work
Crick's push isn't coming from a policy memo alone. Before law school, she spent five years working at a shelter for domestic-violence victims and survivors in Charleston, the outlet reports, and also worked as a court liaison helping women prepare the paperwork needed to request orders of protection. Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Crick, a Greenville attorney, to the 13th Circuit solicitor post, according to The Greenville News.
Two bills introduced at the Statehouse to expand protections to dating partners have already failed to pass, per the same account. In the meantime, Crick said her office is working to provide dating-violence survivors facing cases that aren't technically domestic-violence charges with the same specialized prosecutors, victim advocates, and resources that other victims receive.
What the Numbers Suggest About Dating Violence
The scale of the problem shows up in the data prosecutors are citing. Nearly 45% of murders by an intimate partner in the latest South Carolina Law Enforcement Division figures involved boyfriends and girlfriends, the station reports, and nearly 44% of aggravated and simple assault cases involving intimate partners also stemmed from dating relationships rather than marriages or shared households.
Statewide, the stakes around protective orders are already steep. More than 3,800 Order of Protection cases were filed in South Carolina Family Courts in 2019, according to the South Carolina Access to Justice Commission, with the vast majority filed by women against men and 81% of petitioners reporting they'd experienced multiple types of abuse. Yet fewer than half of those cases actually resulted in an order being granted, the commission notes — and South Carolina remains the only state that doesn't offer petitioners a temporary order of protection in the window between filing and their court hearing.
South Carolina Among Few States Without Dating-Violence Law
Michelle Gilbert, Safe Harbor's director of housing, education and advocacy, said South Carolina is one of only four states in the nation without laws extending protections further to dating violence, per FOX Carolina's reporting. Safe Harbor is a nonprofit serving domestic-violence survivors in the Upstate.
Two bills filed during the 2025-2026 legislative session attempted to address the gap. One, Bill 3830, would amend the Protection from Domestic Abuse Act's definition of household member and add a new definition for dating relationship. A separate measure, Bill 143, would include people who are or were dating among those defined as household members and amend the petition process for an order of protection. Neither has become law.
Advocates describe the broader problem as a persistent statewide crisis. Safe Harbor says about one in four women experience domestic violence, and advocates note South Carolina has consistently ranked among the states with the highest rates of women killed by intimate partners, according to WYFF 4. Until the law changes, Crick's office says it will keep working to connect dating-violence survivors with help and resources even when their cases don't carry a formal domestic-violence charge.
