If we are ever to end violence against women, we need to put more focus and resources towards treating batterers, as Katie Balestra points out in the Washington Post,
“Amid the launch of the federal Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage initiatives two years ago, social service agencies and industry experts have begun to recognize the importance not just of helping victims of domestic violence but also of treating the batterers themselves in programs such as the House of Ruth’s Gateway Project.
“No matter how many women you take in, it isn’t going to cure the problem,” said Toby Myers, vice chair of the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, a nonprofit based in Austin. In May, Andrew Klein, editor of the National Bulletin on Domestic Violence Prevention, wrote that abuser intervention programs “serve a critical need” in making sure that batterers comply with their sentencing and don’t repeat their abuse.”
“In 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, the Justice Department gave abuser programs only a fraction of the $113.9 million that was doled out for domestic violence prevention through its largest grant program, Stop Violence Against Women. About 35 percent went to victim services, about half to law enforcement and prosecution services and just $5.4 million, or about 5 percent, to courts for programs including abuser intervention.”
While in no way should already inadequate funds be siphoned from services to victims, clearly you can’t cure the problem by only treating the result, you have to address the cause, and 5.4 million dollars is clearly a drop in the bucket on that front.
A hearty congrats to the state of Nevada for this dubious honor. Might want to think about canceling that trip to Vegas…
“For the second year in a row, Nevada, with a rate of 3.27 per 100,000, ranked first in the nation in the rate of women killed by men according to the Violence Policy Center (VPC) report When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2006 Homicide Data. The annual VPC report details national and state-by-state information on female homicides involving one female murder victim and one male offender. The study uses the most recent data available from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s unpublished Supplementary Homicide Report and is released each year to coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October.
Ranked behind Nevada were: South Carolina at 2 with a rate of 2.84 per 100,000; Alabama at 3 with a rate of 2.20 per 100,000; Oklahoma at 4 with a rate of 2.10 per 100,000; Louisiana at 5 with a rate of 1.97 per 100,000; Vermont at 6 with a rate of 1.90 per 100,000; Texas at 7 with a rate of 1.82 per 100,000; Arkansas at 8 with a rate of 1.74 per 100,000; Arizona at 9 with a rate of 1.72 per 100,000; and, Tennessee at 10 with a rate of 1.70 per 100,000. Nationally, the rate of women killed by men in single victim/single offender instances was 1.29 per 100,000.
VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “These findings alarmingly demonstrate how domestic violence can escalate to homicide. More resources need to be made available to protect women and prevent such tragedies.”
Nationwide, 1,836 females were murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents in 2006. Where weapon use could be determined, firearms were the most common weapon used by males to murder females (907 of 1,675 homicides or 54 percent). Of these, 73 percent (666 of 907) were committed with handguns. In cases where it could be determined if the victim knew her killer, 92 percent of female victims (1,572 out of 1,701) were murdered by someone they knew. Of these, 60 percent (949 out of 1,572) were wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers. More than 12 times as many females were murdered by a male they knew than were killed by male strangers. In 88 percent of all incidents where the circumstances could be determined, the homicides were not related to the commission of any other felony, such as rape or robbery”
Information about violence against women in China is generally sparse at best, here is a rare report:
“The Chinese government has ordered police to respond at the scene to all complaints of domestic violence in a new regulation to protect the rights of women.
The regulation, issued by seven ministries, including the ministries of public security, justice and health, requires police to be dispatched whenever they receive a 110 emergency call regarding household violence.
Chen Xiourong, vice president of the All-China Women’s Federation, said on Wednesday that the regulation would reinforce the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, which was amended in 2005 to include articles on domestic abuse. Twenty-five provinces had also enacted regulations to prevent violence against women.
Women’s federations across China, together with public security departments, had set up domestic-abuse centers, shelters, complaint hotlines and legal aid websites, said Chen.
“All the measures have helped greatly to protect women from domestic violence,” she said.
The federation received 40,000 to 50,000 complaints of domestic violence annually, and the number of cases had been increasing.
In the past, victims lacked legislative support and were afraid or ashamed to speak out, said Chen.
The Tenth National Women’s Congress will be held from Oct. 28 to 31, and more than 1,200 delegates representing the country’s 650 million women will attend.”
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I’m not particularly a fan of the term “domestic violence”–there really isn’t anything domestic about this violence that goes on behind closed doors. In other countries and cultures this violence manifests itself in many different ways. But whether you call it bride burning, or honor killing, rape or murder, women’s bodies are being used to assert power, control and honor. Throughout the month we will be spotlighting the impact of this horrendous kind of violence throughout the world. Today we start with a look at the enormous scope of the problem in this country.
Every year numerous articles appear suggesting that domestic violence is a feminist conspiracy (and in fact as I write this update, this blog is being pummeled with comments by the men’s rights folks). Unfortunately, as the statistics below clearly show, the facts say otherwise.
In the year 2001, more than half a million American women (588,490 women) were victims of nonfatal violence committed by an intimate partner.
Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women. In 2001, women accounted for 85 percent of the victims of intimate partner violence (588,490 total) and men accounted for approximately 15 percent of the victims (103,220 total).
Health Implications of Domestic Violence:
- Pregnant women who are abused run twice the risk of miscarriage and four times the risk of having a baby that is below average weight.
- Emerging studies show a strong relationship between domestic violence and the spread of HIV/AIDS in the developing world.
- Research consistently show that intimate partner violence against women has serious consequences for maternal mortality and child survival.
- The costs of intimate partner violence exceed $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services.
- Homicide is a leading cause of traumatic death for pregnant and postpartum women in the United States, accounting for 31 percent of maternal injury deaths.
- Each year, about 324,000 pregnant women in this country are battered by their intimate partners. That makes abuse is more common for pregnant women than gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia — conditions for which pregnant women are routinely screened. However, few physicians screen pregnant patients for abuse.
LGBT Statistics:
- Gay and bisexual men experience abuse in intimate partner relationships at a rate of 2 in 5, which is comparable to the amount of domestic violence experienced by heterosexual women.
- Approximately 50% of the lesbian population has experienced or will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes.
- In one year, 44% of victims in LGBT domestic violence cases identified as men, while 36% identified as women.
- 78% of lesbians report that they have either defended themselves or fought back against an abusive partner.
- 18% of this group described their behavior as self-defense or “trading blow for blow or insult for insult.”
The Impact of Domestic Violence In Immigrant Communities:
- A recent study in New York City found that 51 percent of intimate partner homicide victims were foreign-born, while 45 percent were born in the United States.
- Forty-eight percent of Latinas in one study reported that their partner’s violence against them had increased since they immigrated to the United States.
- A survey of immigrant Korean women found that 60 percent had been battered by their husbands.
- Married immigrant women experience higher levels of physical and sexual abuse than unmarried immigrant women, 59.5 percent compared to 49.8 percent, respectively.
- Abusers often use their partners’ immigration status as a tool of control.
In such situations, it is common for a batterer to exert control over his partner’s immigration status in order to force her to remain in the relationship.
- Immigrant women often suffer higher rates of battering than U.S. citizens because they may come from cultures that accept domestic violence or because they have less access to legal and social services than U.S. citizens. Additionally, immigrant batterers and victims may believe that the penalties and protections of the U.S. legal system do not apply to them.
- Battered immigrant women who attempt to flee may not have access to bilingual shelters, financial assistance, or food. It is also unlikely that they will have the assistance of a certified interpreter in court, when reporting complaints to the police or a 911 operator, or even in acquiring information about their rights and the legal system.
Native American Statistics:
- American Indians experience per capita rates of violence that are more than twice that of the U.S. resident population.
- One out of three American Indian and Alaskan Native women are raped in their lifetime, compared to about one in five women in the nation as a whole.
- 70% of American Indians who are the victims of violent crimes are victimized by a non-native individual.
- 17% of American Indian women – at least twice that of other groups – are stalked each year.
- In one study of tribal jurisdictions between 1996 and 2001, 70% of orders of protection filed by prosecutors on behalf of American Indian women were violated.
Stalking:
- Seventy-eight percent of stalking victims are women. Women are significantly more likely than men (60 percent and 30 percent, respectively) to be stalked by intimate partners.
- Eighty percent of women who are stalked by former husbands are physically assaulted by that partner and 30 percent are sexually assaulted by that partner.
- Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year1 to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.
- Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.
Domestic Violence Affects Men Too:
- One out of fourteen men has been physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, boyfriend/girlfriend or date at some point in
their lives.
- It is estimated that 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually.
- In terms of victimization, intimate partner violence against men is overwhelming committed in same-sex relationships rather than in heterosexual relationships.
- 16% of adult men who reported being raped and/or physically assaulted were assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, boyfriend/girlfriend or date.
- 40% of gay and bisexual men will experience abuse at the hands of an intimate partner.
- In the National Violence Against Women Survey, 66% of men surveyed in the National Violence Against Women Survey said that they were physically assaulted as a child by an adult 386% of adult men who were physically assaulted were physically assaulted by a man.
- 70% of adult men who were raped were raped by a man.
The above statistics are from the and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) Family Violence Prevention Fund.
You can find additional statistics here:
For more information on Domestic Abuse or to get help, contact:
From the Office Of Sen. Joe Biden:
Senate Passes BIDEN’s Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act
September 25, 2008
Today, the Senate passed Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s (D-DE) Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2008, legislation designed to help eliminate the nationwide backlog of rape evidence kits and bolster DNA testing of criminals and crime scene evidence. The original law – authored by Sen. Biden and set to expire at the end of FY 2009 – helped standardize the evidence collection of kits for sexual assaults, making it easier to enter the information into state and national databases. The law also provided funds to help forensic labs process the DNA evidence and compare the DNA samples with those taken from criminals. Today’s reauthorization bill would extend the important program through 2014 and help solve thousands of rapes and other violent crimes.
It is estimated that 40 percent of the unsolved rape cases could be solved by taking the DNA sample collected after a sexual assault and comparing it to the existing DNA databases of convicted felons and rapists. The U.S. Department of Justice has estimated that there are at least 221,000 rape kits currently on the shelves in evidence lockers, untested and gathering dust. The Debbie Smith Grant Program has helped alleviate some of the backlog and has expanded testing to solve more crimes, but much more needs to be done.
“If there’s a rape kit left sitting on a shelf, there’s a victim without justice. This program must be kept alive until the backlog numbers total zero,” said Senator Biden. “It is unconscionable that we have the ability to solve these crimes and hold the perpetrators responsible, but because of red tape and lack of funding, the criminals are free and their victims continue live in fear. In the past five years, we’ve made headway in the backlog, but we still have a long road to go before it is eliminated.”
After holding Judiciary Committee hearings on the backlog of rape kits waiting to be tested, Sen. Biden introduced and Congress passed the Advancing Justice Through DNA Act in 2004 to help states eliminate their DNA backlog and allow law enforcement greater leeway to indict unnamed individuals using their DNA profile.
The bill was named for Debbie Smith, a Virginia woman who was raped near her home in 1989 and lived in fear until a crime laboratory discovered a DNA match between the rape scene evidence and a State prisoner’s DNA sample. That match gave Mrs. Smith her first moment of real security and closure, and since then she has traveled the country to advocate on behalf of assault victims and champion the use of DNA to fight sexual assault.
The Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2008 provides:
• $151 million per year for the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program to eliminate the current backlog of unanalyzed DNA samples in the nation’s crime labs. This money will provide federal grants to state and local governments over the next six years for DNA analysis of unprocessed evidence in rape cases;
• $12.5 million per year for the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act help local law enforcement agencies put the DNA profiles of convicted felons into state and national databases. It also provides training grants to help ensure that nurses, police and paramedics know how to best collect and preserve DNA evidence in sexual assault cases; and
• $30 million per year for the Sexual Assault Forensic Exam Grants to ensure that there are trained and equipped personnel to assist with the treatment and examination of sexual assault victims, including Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) and Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners (SAFE).
