Violence Against Women Act

We have come a long way from the days in which police and legal institutions treated violence against women as only a family or private matter. Likewise, general public understanding of domestic abuse and sexual assault has improved, as advocates, educators and survivors have spent years explaining why “she was asking for it” couldn’t be farther from the truth. A major testament to this progress is the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), passed 15 years ago, which identified violence against women and girls as a national epidemic, requiring a national response. Under VAWA more than $9 billion has been appropriated thus far to improve services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and teen dating violence and to educate law enforcement and members of the judiciary to improve prosecution of these crimes and the effectiveness of offender management. Still, this is only a fraction of the funds necessary to sustain these services for the millions of individuals and families in need.

With the current state of the economy, the rising levels of frustration, and persistent attitudes that cast women as deserving targets, the reauthorization of VAWA, due for consideration in 2010, provides an important opportunity to look again at what continues to be a national crisis.