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Chapter III THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT: A NATIONAL RESPONSE The report we release today -- the latest in a three year investigation into the problem of violent crimes against women -- reveals that our system of justice remains constrained by attitudes, stereotypes, and policies that force victims to negotiate a long and uncertain road toward justice. * Every week, more than 2,000 women are raped; if unreported rapes are counted the total may be as high as 12,000 per week.(34) * At least one-third of all women murdered in 1990 died at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends.35 * One city zoo spends twice as much money to care for animals as the entire state spends to care for victims of domestic violence.(36) * According to one study, family violence alone may cost the country as much as $5 to $10 billion every year in health care and associated costs.37 A national coordinated response to the problem of violence against women is long overdue. The Violence Against Women Act In January 1991, Senator Biden introduced the Violence Against Women Act. This legislation, the first comprehensive response to this violence, strikes not only at the epidemic's effects but also at the prejudices that lend it power. The Violence Against Women Act recognizes that there is no place -- home, street, or school -- where women are spared the fear of crime. This bill seeks above all to address the vital necessity and right of women to be free from violence. Senator Biden has said on many occasions that no piece of legislation will put an end to violence against women and the lasting effects on those who survive. But this legislation takes an essential first step toward recognition of violence against women as a crime, like many others, with victims who merit equal protection and deserve equal justice for their attackers. This chapter summarizes each of the five titles of the Violence Against Women Act of 1993. Title I - Safe Streets for Women Title I of the bill -- the Safe Streets for Women Act -- sends a signal that is long overdue, that crimes against women must be taken seriously and must be made a law enforcement priority. Title I: * Provides $300 million to states and areas most in need of assistance and ensures that states will have the resources they need to make violent crimes against women a top priority; and, * Creates special units of police, prosecutors, and victim advocates to fight crimes against women and focuses on those areas with the highest rate of crimes against women. Title I also takes the simple, but necessary, measures to increase safety for women in public parks and on public transit systems, it: * Earmarks existing funding to put more lights and security cameras in bus stops and adjacent parking lots, in national parks, state parks, and subway stations. * Sets aside existing park funds for emergency telephones and police in public parks. This title also makes significant improvements in the Federal system's response to crimes against women, instructing the Federal Sentencing Commission to: * Enhance federal penalties where more than one offender is involved; * Review current sentence levels to ensure that they reflect the severity of the crime, and; * Remove unwarranted disparities in sentences between cases where the offender is known to the victim and cases where the offender is not known. Title I also recognizes that women are increasingly victimized by a system of justice that responds to them as if they are victims of a second-class crime. This title enhances the Federal system's response to violence against women by encouraging women to prosecute their attackers. The encouragement comes in many forms, from educating women about their rights, to helping them prove their case, to making rape trials more bearable. The Act: * Extends "rape shield law" protection to criminal and civil cases; bars the use of a woman's clothing to show, at trial, that the victim incited or invited a sexual assault. * Mandates restitution to the victims of sex crimes by their attackers. * Authorizes $65 million in funds for rape prevention and education. * Requires states to pay for all forensic rape examinations. Finally, Title I establishes the National Commission on Violent Crimes Against Women. The Commission will promote a national policy on violent crimes against women and will make recommendations on curbing the rising number of these crimes. Title II - Safe Homes for Women Title II of the bill -- the Safe Homes for Women Act -- focuses on crimes in the home, whether they are classified as rape, assault, or robbery. Last October, we reported that 20% of aggravated assaults reported to the police every week in America occur in the home.(38) Now, more than ever, national leadership on this issue is sorely needed. Since July 1992, when the National Domestic Violence Hotline was disconnected due to lack of funding -- even as it was receiving 10,000 calls per month(39) -- the country has been without a central resource for calls regarding domestic violence. Title II responds to the need of women to be free from violence, whether it occurs on the street or in the home. Moreover, it recognizes that domestic violence is anything but domestic -- it is not a private matter but a serious crime. To protect women from abusive spouses or partners, Title II provides the following federal remedies: * Creating the first federal penalties for crimes committed against spouses during interstate travel and crimes committed by spouse abusers who cross state lines to continue their abuse; * Requiring that a protection order issued by the court of one state be accorded full faith and credit by the court of another state. Title II provides incentives to encourage states to recognize that domestic violence should be dealt with by law enforcement as a violation of the law like any other; it: * Authorizes $25 million for states that implement pro-arrest programs and policies in police departments and improve case tracking to promote the arrest of abusing spouses. * For states suffering from strain on their systems because of increased arrests, the bill provides additional assistance to centralize and systematize the process. * More than triples existing levels of funding for battered women's shelters. Title II heightens awareness about domestic violence by educating young people about domestic violence through schools and the media. The Act: * Authorizes a national media campaign against such violence. * Funds programs for education of young people about domestic violence and violence among intimate partners, with programs for primary, middle and secondary schools, as well as institutions of higher education. Finally, two new provisions have been added to Title II with the bill's reintroduction as the Violence Against Women Act of 1993. These provisions respond to the need to increase victims' access to information and increase efforts to gauge accurately the rising level of violence against women by people they know: * Providing funding for a National Domestic Violence Hotline establishing a toll-free telephone hotline to provide information and assistance to victims of domestic violence (a proposal authored by Senator Kennedy). * Boosting research and data collection of violent crimes focusing on the relationship between the victim and offender. Title III - Civil Rights for Women Title III of the bill -- the Civil Rights for Women Act -- creates the first civil rights remedy aimed at violent gender-based discrimination against women. Title III recognizes that violence against women not only raises issues of safety for women, it also raises issues of equality. This portion of the bill at last makes complete this nation's long- standing commitment against violent discrimination. While this country has refused to tolerate violent discrimination on the basis of race for more than 120 years, as a nation we have failed to extend that protection to victims of gender-motivated violence. This legislation acknowledges the reality that women live with every day -- that they are the disproportionate victims of some violent crimes. In fact, 98.9% of the victims of rape are women.(40) Women as a group significantly alter their behavior because of their fear of violence.(41) It is the fundamental purpose of Title III to acknowledge this fact by providing an effective anti-discrimination remedy for violently expressed prejudice and to express the nation's recognition that violent gender-based discrimination will not be tolerated. Title III: * Allows women to vindicate their right to be free of gender-based violence through a civil suit for monetary or other relief. * Makes gender-based assaults a violation of federal civil rights laws. Title III seeks to put gender-motivated bias crimes against women on the same footing as other bias crimes. Whether an attack is motivated by racial, ethnic or gender bias, that violence not only wounds physically, it degrades and terrorizes, instilling fear and inhibiting the lives of all those similarly situated. In the words of one witness who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee: "... for it is the manner in which we view violence against women that will, in large part, be the measure by which our progress toward full and equal rights for women will be judged."(42) Title IV - Safe Campuses for Women Title IV of the bill -- the Safe Campuses for Women Act -- focuses on the special problems facing young women on campuses across the country. In fact, women between the ages of 18 and 24 are among those most likely to be raped, and a significant portion of these young women are in college. Title IV: * Boosts to $20 million funding for the neediest colleges for campus rape education and prevention programs. Title V - Equal Justice for Women in the Courts Title V of the bill -- the Equal Justice for Women in the Courts Act -- recognizes the crucial role played by the Judicial Branch in forming an effective response to violent crimes against women in our society. Despite gains in many areas of our criminal justice system, as the Report we release today reveals, victims still must negotiate a system that is at times unfriendly toward the victims of violent crime -- especially when those victims are women. In fact, as this Report reveals, women who are rape victims are sometimes cavalierly dealt with by a system that is tougher on thieves than rapists. Title V seeks to correct this injustice through education and training: * Creating training programs for State and Federal judges to raise awareness and increase sensitivity about rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and crimes of violence motivated by the victim's gender. Training curricula must be developed in conjunction with a broad array of experts, including law enforcement officials, volunteer victim advocates, prosecutors, defense attorneys and other legal experts. The programs will focus on a number of issues including sexual assault, domestic violence and gender stereotyping. NOTES 34. Violence Against Women: A Week in the Life of America, Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, October 1992 at ix. 35. FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Table 2.11 and Table 2.10, (1991). 36. "'Til Death Do Us Part," TIME, January 18,1993, at 42. "In 1990, the Baltimore zoo spent twice as much money to care for animals as the state of Maryland spent on shelters for victims of domestic violence." 37. "The Billion Dollar Epidemic," American Medical News, January 6, 1992, at 7. 38. Violence Against Women: A Week in the Life of America. Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, October 1992 at ix. 39. Gibbs, Nancy, "'Til Death Do Us Part," TIME, January 18,1992, at 42. 40. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1991, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Table 4.7, at 442. 41. Gordon, Margaret and Stephanie Riger, The Female Fear. New York: Free Press (1989), at 122. 42. Testimony of Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Senate Hearing 102-369, 101st Congress, 2d Session, at 62, (April 9, 1991).