WASHINGTON – The Internet had added a new dimension to domestic violence and proposed federal legislation would seek to change that.

New York’s Senior Senator Charles Schumer supports the measure, which among other provisions, would criminalize the use of the web to threaten a domestic partner.

“Basically, if you use the Internet to intimidate, harass, stalk, it would be a crime just as if you did it in person,” Schumer said.

The plan has the support of Leah Feldman, who heads the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office counter-domestic violence effort.

“We are all learning about new and different types of social media and technology that can really affect victims of domestic violence in ways of greater stalking abilities for offenders and creating programs to help us better understand this, help prosecutors and police better understand this type of technology will be very, very helpful,” Feldman said.

To point up the need to fight domestic violence, Schumer provided statistics in the region in 2009-2010:

• Columbia County: 441
• Dutchess County: 2,488
• Greene County: 377
• Orange County: 3,003
• Putnam County: 328
• Rockland County: 1,940
• Sullivan County: 754
• Ulster County: 1,797
• Westchester County: 5,205