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Society
Victory for VAWA
by Elayne Clift
October 30, 2005
In 1987, when Charlotte Fedders testified in a Maryland divorce court
against her husband, a prominent figure in the US federal government,
domestic violence was considered something of an oxymoron. Police called
to the scene by abused women labelled the disasters they found 'private
family disputes'. Judges imposed harsh sentences on women who defended
themselves against their abusers and doled out lenient penalties to the
abusers.
 But Fedders' 1989 memoir 'Shattered Dreams', and her subsequent advocacy
helped secure passage of the Violence Against Women Act, first passed in
1994.
"The Act was groundbreaking. It recognized the responsibility of
government to prevent violence and help victims," says Sheila Dauer,
Director of the Women's Human Rights Programme at Amnesty International
USA, an international human rights NGO. "It provided urgent funding for
services for the victims of violence and training for all law, judicial
and social service officials on how to recognize, investigate and bring
perpetrators to justice. Thousands of women in the US have benefited
from this historic legislation."
The Act had been waiting for its second funding reauthorization by the
US Congress since September. The reauthorization was finally passed on
October 4. (The timing is fitting, for October is Domestic Violence
Awareness month in the US.)
A broad coalition of women's rights advocates have worked to add 10 new
areas to the Act, last reauthorized in 2000, that will further protect
and assist women of diverse backgrounds. These changes include dating
violence and stalking as forms of violence, providing guidance to
landlords and public housing authorities to protect women from eviction
due to domestic violence, and stronger immigration protection for women
who are victims of violence. The coalition has also demanded
improvements in the juvenile justice system to better protect girls and
youth, as well as tribal provisions for Native American women who are
abused. Communities of color were also pushing for better protection.
Violence against women in the US is staggering. One out of every six
American women suffers rape or an attempted rape during her lifetime.
Nearly 44 per cent of rape victims are under age 18, and three out of 20
are under 12. Many rape cases go unreported because of fear or shame: In
2003, only 39 per cent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to the
police. In 40 per cent of cases, assaults begin during pregnancy.
In the last 10 years, the National Domestic Violence Hotline has
received over one million calls, while an estimated 73 per cent of
domestic violence cases go unreported because women don't trust the
justice system. The unmet need is still huge. In Missouri alone, more
than 4,000 women and children were turned away from shelters last year
because of inadequate space.
Domestic violence is also an issue in the American military where it is
downplayed and batterers are directed to anger management classes or
couples counselling, viewed as ineffective in reducing the incidence of
domestic violence.
The landmark legislation passed in 1994 was foreshadowed by a case
brought before the New York court in 1978 when 12 battered women won
damages for inadequate police protection. The following year, a group of
200 women developed a diagnostic tool - the Power and Control Wheel -
that defined abusive behavior, and a study conducted in Minnesota found
that batterers are likely to repeat their abusive behavior within six
months of serving jail time. In 1987, a court in Connecticut awarded a
domestic violence victim over US$ 2 million when police refused to
arrest her husband. Then Charlotte Fedders revealed that her prominent
lawyer husband was beating her.
"The lid was off and the closet door was opened," as one women's health
educator put it.
Pat Reuss, senior policy analyst with the National Organization for
Women (NOW), remembered in a recent National NOW Times article what it
was like in 1994 when, after four years of intensive lobbying, the Act
was signed.
"On a perfect, early fall day in Washington DC, a handful of NOW Action
Centre staff members and activists trooped over to the White House lawn
to witness the signing of a crime bill. Tucked away in the omnibus crime
bill was the long-awaited VAWA. Like obedient fans, we cheered at this
bill signing, even though no one mentioned [specifically] this
monumental Act. While waiting for someone to acknowledge VAWA's
existence, we reminisced about the intense four-year effort to make it a
reality."
The Act was funded by the US Congress at US$ 1.62 billion over a
six-year period so that individual states could carry out its mandates,
Reuss recalled. But "a new Congress swept in that fall and they refused
to release the funds. NOW's massive rally against violence the following
spring broke the log jam at last, and the changes began." During its
reauthorization in 2000, another "exhausting battle" ensued to expand
and improve the bill, despite the galvanized attention brought to
domestic violence issues by the 1995 O J Simpson Case.
After the reauthorization, US$ 3.9 billion will be available over the
next four years to a variety of programs included in VAWA.
According to activists, there is still work to be done in areas of
prevention and eradication, as well as in educating law enforcement.
Judges are often swayed by charming batterers, while they frequently
consider the victims hysterical. Advocates must also deal with a
backlash generated by the men's rights movement. A US Supreme Court
ruling handed down in June 2005, for example, exempted police officers
from legal action when they refuse to enforce valid restraining orders,
even if their refusal results in death. "This was a truly outrageous
decision," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for
Women. "The Supreme Court just hung a 'shoot here' sign around the necks
of battered women and their children all across the country. Abusers may
feel they have a green light to ignore restraining orders, and police
departments under budget restraints could see domestic violence
enforcement as a 'no penalty' area to cut resources."
A statement last spring by the National Task Force to End Sexual and
Domestic Violence Against Women - a coalition of 2,000 organizations
that was central to the crafting and passage of the 1994 Act - said,
"For 10 years, VAWA has provided needed support to women, children and
men facing violence. We are urging Congress to quickly reauthorize the
essential legislation. We need to continue the programs that have worked
so well, and build on our success by revising and expanding the law."
Frontline workers like Melissa Emmal, a community educator at Abused
Women's Aid in Crisis (AWAIC) in Anchorage, Alaska, couldn't agree more.
Reauthorization of an expanded VAWA would have a major impact on the
core services provided by agencies like AWAIC, which wants to initiate a
prevention programme for children in conjunction with the school system.
"We are always worried about funding," Emmal says, "and violence is such
a huge problem here. Alaska is first in the nation for women being
killed by men. It affects everyone and we all have to work together to
solve the problem and to break the cycle of family violence."
(Elayne Clift writes from Vermont, USA. Her latest edited collection
is 'Women, Philanthropy and Social Change: Visions for a Just Society';
Tufts University Press, 2005.)
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
Top
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The Week of October 30, 2005
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United States' "Democracy Thrust" in South Asia is Selective by
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Lord Curzon and The Partition of Bengal by
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Third Child Trick by J. Ajithkumar
Inner City Schools, Affirmative Action and A Child
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The Art of Happiness: Keep Your Pleasures Mild
by Vikram Karve
Choice of Children's Careers and Parental Aspirations
by Meera Chowdhry
Silver, Silver Shining Bright by Alipta Jena
Speaking for Her Security by Deepti Priya
Mehrotra
Victory for VAWA by Elayne Clift
A Moral Victory is Not What we Want by Gautam
Bhan
Power to the Village
Time to Take
Charge Again by Malvika Kaul
Very Rewarding Scheme by Vipin Agnihotri
Our trip to Cologne (Germany) Durga Puja 2005… by
Jayati Chowdhury
Visiting Ladakh by Anamika Banerjee
Wild Flowers of Chhialekh A Photo
Essay by Kana Talukder
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