II. PROBLEM STATEMENT

The Department of Justice focus on the family violence problem increased with the 1984 report of the Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence. The Task Force stated: "A great proportion of those who assault both strangers and loved ones were raised themselves in violent households. This is learned behavior. To tolerate family violence is to allow the seeds of violence to be sown into the next generation." A justice focus on family violence is thus one that concerns violence prevention as well as a just outcome in individual cases.

Family violence has not only been acknowledged as a critical criminal justice issue, but as a major public health concern. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala stated, "Domestic violence is a serious public health problem. . . We need doctors to do a lot more than treat injuries. We need our medical personnel to find out how the patient was injured. We need them to help prevent it from happening over and over. And we need medical workers to learn guidelines for treating abuse and learn where they can send victims for help. . ." (White House news conference, July 13, 1995). Similar to justice professionals, medical professionals play a significant role in the identification, intervention, and prevention of family violence.

The nature and extent of violence within the family is tragic and alarming. The following statistics and research findings suggests a continued burden and challenge to our society:

• In 1995 an estimated 1,215 children died as a result of child abuse and neglect; approximately 3,111,000 children were reported as potential victims of maltreatment; and, of those reported, an estimated 996,000 children were confirmed as victims of maltreatment by child protective services (National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, April 1996).



• In 1995 approximately 10 percent of substantiated child maltreatment cases (approximately 109,230) involved sexual abuse (National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, April 1996).



• There is a demonstrated correlation between early childhood abuse and neglect and risk for delinquency, adult criminality, and violent criminal behavior. "Being abused or neglected as a child increased the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 53 percent, as an adult by 38 percent, and for a violent crime by 38 percent" (The Cycle of Violence, Cathy Spatz Widom, NIJ, 1992, p.1).

• Compared to victims of childhood physical abuse and neglect, victims of childhood sexual abuse are at greater risk of being arrested for one type of sex crime: prostitution. (Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse - Later Criminal Consequences, Cathy Spatz Widom, NIJ, 1995, p.2).



• In 43 percent of serious child abuse or neglect cases, at least one parent has a documented substance abuse problem. Alcohol, cocaine, and heroin were the most frequently abused drugs (Murphy, Jellinek, Quinn, Smith, Poitrast, and Goshko, Child Abuse and Neglect, V 15 N 3, 1991).



• According to estimates from the redesigned National Crime Victimization Survey, women age 12 or older experienced nearly five million victimizations in 1992 and 1993. More than 75% of these victims knew or were related to their attacker, and injuries occurred more often when the offender was an intimate (Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, BJS, Bachman and Saltzman, 1995).



• Women are six times more likely than men to experience violence committed by an intimate (Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, BJS, Bachman and Saltzman, 1995).



• Women annually report approximately 500,000 rapes and sexual assaults. Twenty-six percent of these incidents were committed by an intimate (Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, BJS, Bachman and Saltzman, 1995).



• Offenders committed over a half million violent crimes against a spouse or ex-spouse. Of these 9% were rapes or sexual assaults, 6% were robberies, 14% aggravated assaults, and 71% were simple assaults. ("Criminal Victimization 1993," Lisa Bastian, BJS, May 1995).



• Twenty-six percent of all female murder victims in 1995 were slain by husbands or boyfriends (Crime in the United States, 1995, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1996).



• Family and intimate assaults involving firearms are 12 times more likely to be fatal than assaults that do not involve firearms (Saltzman, JAMA, 3043, 3045, 1992).



• About 5 percent of the nation's elderly may be victims of moderate to severe abuse (Elder Abuse: A Decade of Shame and Inaction, Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging of the U.S. House of Representatives, May 1990). The National Aging Resource Center on Elder Abuse estimates that nearly 1.57 million older people became victims of domestic elder abuse during 1991.



• According to a survey of states by the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care only one out of every eight cases of elder abuse is reported (Tatara, National Aging Resource Center on Elder Abuse, Washington, DC, 1993).

• Neglect is the most common form of elder maltreatment in domestic settings. Forty-five percent of non self-neglect reports that were substantiated in 1991 involved neglect (Tatara, National Aging Resource Center on Elder Abuse, Washington, DC, 1993).



• The most frequent abusers of the elderly in domestic settings are adult children. Almost 33% of the substantiated cases of elder abuse in 1991 involved adult children as abusers. Over half of the abusers were male, while approximately two-thirds of victims were females (Tatara, National Aging Resource Center on Elder Abuse, Washington, DC, 1993).



• A national survey of criminal justice practitioners reveals that virtually all police chiefs and sheriffs indicated that domestic violence contributed to workload problems. Over 91% of the responding prosecutors and 82% of public defenders cited domestic violence and child abuse cases as contributors to workload problems in their offices. Of the judges responding to the survey, 79% indicated child abuse cases contributed to workload problems and 85% indicated domestic violence cases contributed to workload problems. Finally, two-thirds of jail administrators report domestic violence as a moderate or major contributor to their jail crowding problems. (National Institute of Justice, National Assessment Program: 1994 Survey Results, June 1995).

Given the important role of the criminal and civil justice systems, the limited resources available to address family violence, and the goals relative to family violence that are embodied in the Crime Act, particularly the Violence Against Women Act, it is important that OJP and other DOJ agencies closely examine current efforts, prioritize the use of available funds and resources, and coordinate efforts within DOJ, and other responsible Federal agencies.

The Department of Justice has begun to respond with an expanded and coordinated focus on the many justice related needs surrounding this grave national problem of violence within families.

One example of the coordinated and collaborative efforts occurring within OJP is the "Safe Kids - Safe Streets" program. "Acknowledging the correlation between child abuse and neglect and later violent delinquency and the need to improve system response, OJP set out to create a single program aimed at helping to break the cycle of early childhood victimization and later juvenile or adult criminality" (OJP Safe Kids - Safe Streets Joint Solicitation, 1996, p.3). The funding partners for the program are the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Executive Office for Weed and Seed, and the Violence Against Women's Grants Office, with additional support being provided by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims Of Crime. The Safe Kids - Safe Streets initiative represents a unique partnership that pools the resources, experiences, and expertise of all the OJP agencies. (OJP Safe Kids - Safe Streets Joint Solicitation, 1996, p.3)

The sections that follow detail further efforts of the OJP offices and bureaus to individually and jointly address the problem of family violence.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN GRANTS OFFICE

I. Legislative Mandate

In 1994, Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which included the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994. The Violence Against Women Grants Office (VAWGO) was created within the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) to establish policy and administer the formula and discretionary grant programs authorized under this landmark legislation. Through its efforts, VAWGO serves as a catalyst for bringing about fundamental change in the way communities across this country are addressing crimes of violence against women and pursuing efforts to ensure victim safety. Working in partnership with state, local, and tribal government officials as well as private, non-profit organizations, VAWGO encourages the development and support of innovative, effective programs for preventing, identifying, and stopping violence against women.

II. Background

Over the past several years public attitudes towards violence against women have gradually begun to change. Unfortunately, insidious prejudices, a shortage of reliable information, and the criminal justice system's inexperience with the complexities of violence against women have continued to impede progress. VAWA was enacted in part to provide communities with tools and resources to change the system's response to violence against women. The resources provided under VAWA enable communities to offer a constellation of services from police departments, prosecutors' offices, pretrial service agencies, the courts, probation and parole, and non-profit, non-governmental victim service agencies, thereby creating a seamless web of support for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. At its core, this comprehensive approach was designed, above all, to enhance women's safety and to bring the perpetrators of violence against women to justice.

Following the enactment of VAWA in 1994, Congress appropriated $26 million to fund violence against women programs in fiscal 1995. Lawmakers reaffirmed their support for these programs in subsequent years by increasing the appropriation to $166 million in FY 1996 and $193 million in FY 1997.

Upon receiving its funding for fiscal 1994, VAWGO invited states, territories, and tribal governments to apply for grants to develop and implement a coordinated criminal justice system response to violence against women. Each grant recipient was required to submit an implementation plan outlining its priorities for the coming year. To ensure the development and implementation of responsive, effective programs reflecting local priorities, these plans were to be produced in consultation with victim service providers, victims' advocates, and other interested community members, along with police, prosecutors, and the courts.

The grants and technical assistance provided to violence against women programs in the first year of VAWA have helped lay the foundation for an ongoing, collaborative system of support

whose primary mission is ensuring women's personal safety both within and outside their homes.

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