While we often hear about a domestic violence problem in Maine, those who can do the most to improve it are not doing enough. We’re talking about victims.

The latest example is the ex-girlfriend of Dwight Knox, a 39-year-old Jay man sentenced this week to laughable probation for aggravated assault, despite being accused of stabbing a sleeping man in the neck last May in Rumford.

Knox has a criminal history resplendent with serious offenses. Yet prosecutors felt helpless because his ex-girlfriend, a witness, wavered in her statements to police.

She initially named Knox as the suspect. Then recanted. Then changed her story again, which could have put shreds of reasonable doubt in the minds of a jury. The victim had trouble picking Knox out of a police lineup, but then again, he was sleeping.

What sunk the case, however, was the ex-girlfriend’s inconsistency. It’s the biggest problem law enforcement experiences, as well, when dealing with incidents of domestic violence. Victims sometimes are afraid, or are unwilling, to see the case through. It happens all the time.

The reluctance of victims can slay the best efforts of advocates, lawmakers, police, prosecutors and the courts. Many reports have detailed the pervasiveness of domestic violence in Maine, much money has been appropriated, and all the right things are said, over and over.

In this current budget crisis, for example, lawmakers dipped into tobacco settlement money to preserve domestic violence programs after a public outcry. The political will and popular sentiment is with stopping this scourge in Maine – all the mechanisms are in place.

But the entire system depends on victims to cooperate, and rise above their fear, apprehension or regret, and let the system work for them.

Another study is not necessary. Another domestic violence murder is unconscionable, when the scope of the problem is so well understood. Maine is one of the safest states in the union, after all. When serious crimes do occur, it’s most likely domestic-related.

We’re not nave, though. Domestic violence is never going to be eliminated, but it can, in our opinion, be controlled. Maine has created an infrastructure for policing, enforcing and prosecuting offenders, and supporting, aiding and protecting the abused.

None of it can work without the cooperation of victims. They must come forward, stow their fears and apprehensions, and stand up for themselves.

As a society, we are ready and willing to stand beside them.