The Daily Populous Saturday September 14th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by pbs.org and submitted by ILikeNeurons

Thirty years ago, a new law transformed the way the United States recognizes and combats gender-based violence.

The Violence Against Women Act, signed by President Bill Clinton on Sept. 13, 1994, was the first federal legislative package to designate domestic violence and sexual assault as crimes and require a community-coordinated response to violence against women.

It was the “most critical” piece of legislation to address gender-based violence, said Pamela Jacobs, CEO of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. Jacobs, herself a survivor of sexual abuse, says the act has been instrumental in helping women lead violence-free lives through greater services and support, holding perpetrators accountable for their crimes and encouraging survivors to come forward.

WATCH: Biden delivers remarks on 30th anniversary of Violence Against Women Act

“It’s really been life-changing for thousands and thousands of people, and has saved countless lives as well,” Jacobs said.

Between 1993 and 2022, domestic violence rates dropped by 67 percent and the rate of rapes and sexual assaults fell 56 percent, the White House said in a statement Thursday.

President Joe Biden authored and championed the legislation as a senator, introducing the bill in 1990. At a White House event held Thursday to honor VAWA’s 30th anniversary, the president said he met his goal of not only changing the law, but changing the “culture of America” by bringing the “hidden epidemic” of domestic violence “out of the shadows.”

Recalling his own father’s gentleness and abhorrence of violence against women and children, Biden said he believed that the only way to address the problem “was by shining a light on that culture and speaking its name.”

Biden thanked advocates like those who run shelters and rape crisis centers and “survivors who speak up for themselves and empower those who suffer in silence.”

“You’ve turned your pain into purpose, and your bravery and spirit are unbreakable,” Biden said. “Because of you — and this is not hyperbole — because of you, we’re a better nation than we were 30 years ago.”

What does the Violence Against Women Act do?

In no small part, VAWA shifted how Americans talk about gender-based violence by providing language and education awareness-raising to survivors and policymakers, Jacobs said. VAWA brought crimes that “thrive in silence,” like domestic violence and sex trafficking, out from behind closed doors and turned sexual violence into a societal and cultural issue rather than just a private one, she said. It became more difficult for perpetrators to operate with complete impunity as the criminal justice system began to take sexual violence crimes more seriously.

Pre-VAWA, domestic violence “was considered shameful, it was a family secret,” Jacobs said. “We didn’t see prevention initiatives and things to even just make people aware of what was happening and what options they had.”

Among many its many effects, VAWA also:

Authorized the creation of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which continues to receive as many as 3,000 calls a day.

Included the first federal criminal law against battering.

Required protection orders to be upheld across state lines.

Created the Office of Violence Against Women under the Department of Justice.

Funded sexual assault forensic examinations, rape crisis centers and trauma-informed law enforcement trainings.

Provided social and legal services to victims of sexual and domestic violence, including housing and immigration protections.

Improved protections for victims of dating violence and stalking in a 2000 expansion of the law.

Increased services for LGBTQ+ survivors, who are traditionally underserved.

Empowered tribal courts to prosecute non-Native perpetrators of domestic and sexual crimes.

Created a new National Resource Center on Cybercrimes Against Individuals and prioritized prosecuting perpetrators of cybercrimes.

Enacted the Fairness for Rape Kit Backlog Survivors Act, which prevented sexual assault survivors from being unfairly blocked from receiving compensation due to rape kit backlogs.

Biden announced Thursday that the Department of Justice will allocate more than $690 million in grant funding to support survivors of gender-based violence, including training for law enforcement. He named housing and cybercrimes as top concerns, stating his administration will focus on guaranteeing housing for survivors and preventing what he called “the next frontier of gender-based violence” — AI-generated deepfakes and online sexual abuse.

Many of these actions build on aspects of Congress’ 2022 reauthorization of VAWA, which is up for federal renewal every five years.

The White House statement also supported the use of federal funds to “keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers” and to continue narrowing what advocates have called the “boyfriend loophole,” by preventing not only married spouses but also stalkers and current and former dating partners from obtaining a firearm if convicted of domestic abuse.

WATCH: Ban on domestic violence abusers owning guns upheld by Supreme Court

VAWA’s 2022 renewal was initially met with strong opposition from GOP lawmakers and the National Rifle Association due to a provision in the bill that aimed to expand limits on firearm access. The provision would have prohibited individuals with misdemeanor stalking convictions from possessing firearms and closed the “boyfriend loophole.”

While Democrats removed the provision from the VAWA reauthorization to get it passed, Congress later that year signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law. That gun safety legislation prohibits individuals convicted of misdemeanors in dating relationships from purchasing or possessing firearms for at least five years.

The Supreme Court this summer also upheld a federal law that prevents anyone subject to a domestic-violence restraining order from possessing a gun in United States v. Rahimi.

What do advocates want to see?

Jennifer Mondino, director of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund at the National Women’s Law Center, hopes that future renewals of VAWA implement more firearm limitations and checks on individuals with an established history of sexual violence.

“We have a huge problem with guns in this country, and [guns are] so, so often — I think heartbreakingly often — inextricably linked with sexual violence,” Mondino said. “If you look into the personal histories of so many people that have been involved in acts of violence in our country, let’s say in the last decade or so, so often those are people that had personal histories of sexual violence.”

The CDC estimates that every month an average of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner. Two-thirds of intimate partner homicides in the U.S. are committed with a gun, and 75 percent of intimate partner firearm homicide victims are women, according to Everytown Research and Policy.

READ MORE: For incarcerated survivors of domestic violence, a new Oklahoma law is another chance at justice

In addition to gun violence prevention, Christian Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women, says she wants future iterations of VAWA to address “the intersections of climate injustices and violence against women,” as well as the disproportionate effect of sexual and domestic violence on Indigenous women and women of color.

While advocates are celebrating and reflecting on their progress achieving greater visibility and safety for women, especially those from marginalized communities, Nunes also hopes this 30th anniversary will be a reminder of all the work still needed to be done.

“It’s so important that we’re starting to finally, at this 30th anniversary, recognize that we have to have a holistic approach in looking at how we are going to eradicate violence against women,” said Nunes, whose organization has lobbied for the passage and reauthorizations of VAWA for decades. “It cannot be one sided. It cannot be siloed. We have to look at every industry.”

Jacobs encourages “believing survivors” as the first step.

“It’s important that we’re listening to [survivors], hearing them, believing them, and being there to provide support” so they can access safety and healing, Jacobs said.

If you or someone you know is experiencing sexual or domestic violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to be connected with a confidential advocate free of charge 24/7. Get connected to resources near you and learn how to make a safety plan on NDVH’s website. The Legal Network for Gender Equity at the National Women’s Law Center also provides free legal assistance for survivors.

Scary-Lawfulness-999 on September 14th, 2024 at 04:14 UTC »

How about we just remove qualified immunity. That would deal with like 98% of gender based violence.

gdan95 on September 14th, 2024 at 02:03 UTC »

Inb4 a Republican Attorney General successfully sued to block this

ILikeNeurons on September 14th, 2024 at 00:49 UTC »

Three-quarters of rape victims are directly harmed by the police response, highlighting the need for improvements. The International Association for Chiefs of Police offers free training for law enforcement on trauma-informed sexual assault investigations, as well as best practices for SA investigative strategies.

Veteran sex crimes detective Sergeant Joanne Archambault founded End Violence Against Women International, which offers free training for sexual assault investigations, as well as the neurobiology of trauma and the implications for interviewing victims.

Briefly, the following are considered best practices by law enforcement:

Approach the victim in a compassionate, empathetic way

Tell the person that it’s OK if they don’t remember or don’t know

Ask open-ended questions and don’t interrupt

Ask what they felt during an assault

Ask them about sights, smells, and sounds to jog memories

If tough questions need to be asked, explain why

When done, explain the next steps

Victim advocates need to be involved as soon possible

Screen all cases in person to make sure the investigations were thorough

Test all rape kits

Instead of interviewing victims in the same cramped bare room where they interrogated suspects, officers renovated a larger, more home like space outfitted with couches and table lamps

Beyond seeking justice for the victim, help them recover from their assault

A high probability of apprehension by law enforcement is critical to deterrence. To that end, it can be helpful to be familiar with the neurobiology of trauma and the nuances of consent. DNA evidence has also revealed that serial offenders often target strangers and non-strangers, meaning it is imperative to submit DNA evidence to CODIS even if the offender's identity is known. Offending patterns are not a consistently reliable link across assaults.

The Police Executive Research Forum recommends this paper for distinguishing between false allegations, case unfounding, and victim recantation, terms that are often incorrectly used interchangeably.

The U.S. DoJ offers a quick way to check your department's reporting accuracy:

> Some law enforcement agencies may be under-investigating sexual assault or domestic violence reports without being aware of the pattern. For instance, in most jurisdictions, the reported rate of sexual assaults typically exceeds the homicide rate. If homicides exceed sexual assaults in a particular jurisdiction, this may62 be an indication that the agency is misclassifying or under-investigating incidents of sexual assault. Similarly, studies indicate that almost two-thirds to three-quarters of domestic violence incidents would be properly classified as “assaults” in law enforcement incident reports.63 Therefore, if the ratio of arrest reports for lesser offenses (e.g., disorderly conduct) is significantly greater than that for assaults, this may indicate that law enforcement officers are not correctly identifying the underlying behavior – i.e., they are classifying serious domestic violence incidents as less serious infractions, such as disorderly conduct.64

Learn how to identify sex offenders by typology here.

More tips and best practices from the DoJ are available here.

Find free training resources from AEquitas at https://aequitasresource.org/resources/

Don't try to predict what juries will do

Involve an advocate early in contacting victims about cold cases

And of course, review the scope of the problem. Rape is incredibly common, and false accusations are rare.