According to Human Rights Watch, there has been a HUGE increase in the number of incidences of violence against women in the United States during the last 2 years.
The statistics show a 42-percent increase in reported domestic violence and a 25-percent increase in the reported incidence of rape and sexual assault.
The National Crime Victimization Survey, based on projections from a national sample survey, says that at least 248,300 individuals were raped or sexually assaulted in 2007, up from 190,600 in 2005, the last year the survey was conducted. The study surveyed 73,600 individuals in 41,500 households. Among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault showed the largest increases. Except for simple assault, which increased by 3 percent, the incidence of every other crime surveyed decreased.
The National Crime Victimization Survey is conducted every two years, with data gathered in phone calls made to a sample of households across the United States. Due to criticism from experts in the subject, the survey’s methodology was adjusted in 2007 to capture more accurately the incidence of gender-based violence. The authors say in the report that the higher numbers may reflect the new, more accurate methodology rather than an actual increase. Two major shifts were to describe types of sexual assault to those being interviewed, and to replace “computer-assisted telephone interviews conducted from two telephone centers” nationwide with interviews “by field representatives either by telephone or in person.”
“The new numbers indicate that previously, the government significantly underestimated the number of individuals affected by domestic and sexual violence in this country,” said Tofte. “Authorities should urgently adjust public policies, law enforcement, and provision of support services accordingly.”
Human Rights Watch’s national recommendations include:
- The Obama administration should appoint a special adviser on violence against women in the US;
- Congress should restore full funding to the Office on Violence Against Women;
- The Department of Justice, through the National Institute of Justice, should authorize comprehensive studies that more accurately track sexual and domestic violence in the US, especially among individuals who are least likely to be surveyed by the National Crime Victimization Survey;
- Congress should increase funding for sexual and domestic violence prevention, intervention, and treatment programs;
- Congress should amend the federal Debbie Smith Act, a grant program designed to eliminate the rape kit backlog, but that states can and have used for other kinds of DNA backlogs;
- The US should ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which obligates states to prevent, protect against, and punish violence against women.
Jill Filipovic at Feministe has some excellent commentary about these findings:
“Of all the women who reported experiencing a violent crime in 2007, 69 percent of them suffered that crime at the hands of someone they knew (not just intimates). For men, it’s 46 percent — and the vast majority of those are from a friend or acquaintance.
So men are more likely to be victims of nearly every crime except rape and sexual assault. Men are more likely to be victimized by a stranger. Women are more likely to be victimized by someone they know, and in private.
And yet it’s women who are still routinely warned to not go to certain places, or told not to walk home alone, or advised to carry mace, even though men have more to fear generally when it comes to crime. Men certainly have more to fear when it comes from crime at the hand of strangers. For women, it’s the home — their own or others’ — that’s a danger zone.
(T)he pervasive threat of rape is a tool of social control over the female population, and…there are certain groups in society who have a vested interest in maintaining that control. The shaming of rape survivors, and the defining of acquaintance rape as “grey” or somehow not as serious as “real” stranger rape, is part of that effort — because if we actually talk about our experiences with sexual assault, a much more complex picture than the stranger-in-the-bushes scenario develops, and it’s a lot harder to use rape as a threat to keep women in line.”
6 Responses to “HUGE Increase In Number Of Reported Cases Of Violence Against Women In The U.S.”
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Thank you for reporting on this — pretty grim, isn’t it? And American reporters would still rather report on the rape and acid attacks on women in the developing world than what’s happening at home. These (US and foreign instances of violence against women) should ALL be reported, of course, but with more analysis as to causation and consequence. Violence against women should NOT be treated like something that happens only in other countries. (I’m referring to the Wash Post’s recent series on violence against women in South Asia, and the frequent reporting there has been on the rape of women in Darfur.)
Thanks to decrepit old farts like Pat Robertson, Rick Warren, Tony Perkins..etc., preaching that women should “know in their place”, compound that with economic hard times, a police state, corrupt politicians and it becomes acceptable for cowardly men (or others) to beat and abuse women again…and then the abused women turn on their children….a cycle perhaps?
Every husband a Taleban! Every household under sharia law!
I think that’s a summation of what the evangelicals want. And there’s plenty of fist-happy men with RWLDS who flock to their churches.
[...] Femblogs, an increase in reported DV is good news! Jump to Comments In the past week, Human Rights Watch and at least three major feminist blogs have posted somberreactions to this report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Here’s the gist of the hubbub, from HRW: A new government report showing huge increases in the incidences of domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault over a two-year period in the United States deserves immediate attention from lawmakers and the incoming administration, Human Rights Watch said today. The statistics show a 42-percent increase in reported domestic violence and a 25-percent increase in the reported incidence of rape and sexual assault. [...]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081226/ap_on_re_us/santa_shooting
Here is an example of how western media report yet another case of male terrorism against women. Yes, the police are still seeking answers as to why a supposedly respectable, pleasant, cheerful man named Bruce Pardo should murder 9 human beings. I suggest the police look up the word femicide and male supremacy, because Pardo could not accept a woman has the right to divorce her husband. Note, Pardo also murdered a young girl by shooting her in the face. Hardly the act of a ‘respectable, pleasant cheerful man.’ But then the person who said these words was Pardo’s attorney and this man had not challenged Pardo on his misogynistic perceived male sex right to view women as his personal property.
Plenty of men who divorce do not go on to murder their ex female partners but then again, there are plenty of men who do commit femicide and always it is perceived as ‘just an isolated or tragic case because the poor man was obviously under a lot of stress and supposedly just snapped.’
As first commentator astutely said, we need more analysis – only fact is the analysis is readily available and guess what? It is all about male supremacy or to use that old fashioned word – patriarchy which is at the core of male sexual, physical and psychological violence against women. Which is why western media refuses to even mention this fact, far better to claim male violence against women in western culture are isolated, rare incidents, whereas male violence against women in other cultures is due to such countries not being as ‘westernised’ as the west. Must not ‘join up the dots’ because if we did then the world would truly split wide open.
Sadly, too many women participate in the silencing of women who struggle against patriarchy and it’s attendant poverty, almost guaranteed if one is a single mother. The situation for single mothers in amerikkka is one of desperation, increasing health problems, hunger and slightly better for the children. It is not acceptable to even speak about one’s struggle. I find this to be the case among activist women who enjoy middle class life while those below them are supposed to suffer in silence. Absurd.