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Grants to Reduce Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking on Campus
Program Brief
INTRODUCTION
The Grants to Reduce Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault,
and Stalking on Campus Program (Campus Program) is designed to encourage
institutions of higher education to adopt comprehensive, coordinated responses
to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Campuses,
in partnership with community-based nonprofit victim advocacy organizations
and local criminal justice or civil legal agencies, must adopt protocols
and policies that treat violence against women as a serious offense and develop
victim service programs that ensure victim safety, offender accountability,
and the prevention of such crimes.
Many campuses are beginning to address violent crimes against women by developing
campus-based responses that include campus victim services, campus law enforcement,
health services, housing authorities, campus administration, student organizations,
and disciplinary boards. To be effective, these responses must be linked
to local criminal justice agencies and service providers, including local
law enforcement agencies, prosecutors' offices, courts, and nonprofit, nongovernmental
victim advocacy and victim services agencies. This coordinated community
response is intended to enhance victim safety and hold offenders accountable.
Institutions of higher education must develop services and programs tailored
to meet the specific needs of victims of domestic violence, dating violence,
sexual assault, and stalking on campuses. In addition, colleges and universities
must address the underlying causes of violence against women on their campuses
by instituting prevention programs that seek to change the attitudes and
beliefs that permit, and often encourage, such behavior. Through their policies,
protocols, and actions, colleges and universities can demonstrate to every
student that violence against women in any form will not be tolerated and
sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence are crimes
with serious legal consequences.
PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY
Eligible applicants for this program are institutions of higher education
as defined under the Higher Education Amendments of 1998. A consortium or
flagship of higher education institutions also may apply for these grants
provided that each individual consortium or flagship member is also eligible
to apply.
SCOPE OF PROGRAM
The scope of the program is outlined by the program purposes and the priority
areas set forth below.
Program Purpose Areas
Grant funds may be used for the following statutory purposes:
- To provide personnel, training, technical assistance, data collection,
and other equipment with respect to the apprehension, investigation,
and adjudication of persons committing domestic violence, dating violence,
sexual assault, and stalking on campus.
- To develop and implement campus policies, protocols, and services that
more effectively identify and respond to the crimes of domestic violence,
dating violence, sexual assault and stalking and to train campus administrators,
security personnel, and personnel serving on campus disciplinary or judicial
boards to more effectively identify and respond to violent crimes against
women on campus, including the crimes of sexual assault, stalking, domestic
violence, and dating violence.
- To implement and operate education programs for the prevention of domestic
violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.
- To develop, enlarge, or strengthen victim service programs on campuses
of institutions involved, including programs providing legal, medical,
or psychological counseling, for victims of domestic violence, dating
violence, sexual assault, and stalking, and to improve the delivery of
victim assistance on campus. To the extent practicable, such an
institution shall collaborate with any entities carrying out nonprofit
and other victim services programs, including domestic violence, dating
violence, sexual assault, and stalking victims services in the community
in which the institution is located. If appropriate victim
services are not available in the community or are not accessible to
students, the institution shall, to the extent practicable, provide a
victim services program on campus or create a victim services program
in collaboration with a community based organization.
- To create, disseminate, or otherwise provide assistance and information
about victims' options on and off campus to bring disciplinary or other
legal action, including assistance to victims in immigration matters.
- To develop and implement more effective campus policies, protocols, orders,
and services specifically devoted to prevent, identify, and respond to
violent crimes against women on campus, including the crimes of sexual
assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence.
- To develop, install, or expand data collection and communication systems,
including computerized systems, linking campus security to local law
enforcement for the purpose of identifying and tracking arrests, protection
orders, violations of protection orders, prosecutions, and convictions
with respect to crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual
assault, and stalking on campus.
- To provide capital improvements (including improved lighting and communications
facilities, but not including the construction of buildings) on campuses
to address the crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault,
and stalking.
- To support improved coordination among campus administrators, campus
security personnel, and local law enforcement to reduce domestic violence,
dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on campus.
These strategies should be part of an overall coordinated campus and community
response to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
For example, if an application proposes to make capital improvements, such
as installing improved lighting, this must be an element of a larger effort
to address the problem comprehensively. Applications must demonstrate how
victim services are or will be provided. Additionally, education efforts
that raise awareness about domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault,
and stalking on campus must direct victims to appropriate services.
Program Priority Areas
The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is especially interesting in supporting
projects submitted by:
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU);
- Tribal Colleges and Universities;
- Universities and Colleges that serve primarily Latino or Hispanic
populations; and
- Universities and Colleges based in the territories of Guam, Virgin
Islands, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.
Minimum Requirements
Institutions of higher education must propose, at a minimum, to do the following:
- Create a coordinated community response to violence against women on
campus. The multidisciplinary response should involve the entire campus
as well as the larger community in which the campus is located. For example,
the following campus-based entities should be involved: students, especially
victims; campus-based victim service providers and violence prevention
programs; campus law enforcement or department of public safety; faculty
and staff; administrators, including the institution's president and
student affairs administrator; women's center; student groups, including
those representing diverse or underserved student populations; the athletics
department; sororities and fraternities; student health care providers
and campus health centers and hospitals; campus counseling centers; campus
clergy; campus housing authorities and student residence hall assistants;
library administrators; women's studies and other academic departments;
campus disciplinary boards and judicial boards; and representatives from
student government.
- Campuses applying for support must develop partnerships with at least
one local nonprofit, nongovernmental victim advocacy organization and
one or more of the following criminal justice or civil legal agencies:
law enforcement, prosecution, civil legal assistance providers, systems-based
victim advocacy units, or judiciary and court personnel. Coordinated
campus and community response teams should meet regularly to review protocols,
policies, and procedures of member organizations and to provide cross-training
on the missions and roles of individual agencies. In addition, coordinated
response teams should develop formal policies and protocols for responding
to violent crimes against women when they occur.
- Establish a mandatory prevention and education program about violence
against women for all incoming students, working in collaboration with
campus and community-based victim advocacy organizations. The program
should include information about domestic violence, dating violence,
sexual assault, and stalking crimes, including the following: how to
file internal administrative complaints and local criminal charges; common
myths about the causes of violence against women; the availability of
resources for victims; and how to encourage peer support for victims
and sanctions for offenders. To encourage reporting of violence against
women crimes, campuses should consider establishing policies and advising
students that victims who come forward to report that they have been
victimized will not be penalized if they violated the institution's alcohol,
substance abuse, or other policies during the violent incident.
- Train campus police to respond effectively to cases of sexual assault,
domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking cases. Training programs
should be developed in collaboration with campus or community-based victim
advocacy programs and include information about relevant state and federal
laws and arrest protocols; evidence collection procedures, especially
in suspected drug-facilitated rape cases; the available campus and community-based
resources for victims; the dynamics of violence against women; how to
conduct safety planning with victims; reporting crimes to local law enforcement
and prosecution with victim consent; respecting victim privacy and confidentiality
concerns; enforcing orders of protection; and making primary aggressor
determinations.
- Establish or strengthen programs to train members of campus disciplinary
boards to respond effectively to charges of violence against women. Training
for disciplinary board members should include the following: a review
of the student code of conduct and legal definitions of domestic violence,
dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking; information refuting myths
about violence against women; training on the issue of consent in sexual
assault cases; information about judging credibility, including the fact
that a victim's use of alcohol does not indicate that a victim is lying
about or responsible for an assault; information about drug-facilitated
sexual assault cases; and information about appropriate sanctions, such
as expulsion of students who have perpetrated domestic violence, dating
violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
Activities That May Compromise Victim Safety
Victim-centered programming is critical to the development of an effective
response to violence against women on campuses. Experience has shown
that certain practices compromise victim safety and minimize perpetrators'
responsibility for criminal behavior. To enhance victim safety and hold
offenders accountable, applicants are discouraged from proposing any
of the activities listed below:
- Requiring victims to report sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence,
and dating violence crimes to law enforcement or campus disciplinary
systems or forcing victims to participate in criminal proceedings.
- Developing prevention programs that focus primarily on victim behavior
because they reinforce the myth that victims somehow provoke or cause
the violence they experience. For example, programs that focus primarily
on alcohol and substance abuse.
- Offering perpetrators the option of entering diversion programs in lieu
of administrative or criminal justice proceedings.
- Mandatory mediation or couples counseling as a response to sexual assault,
stalking, domestic violence, or dating violence.
- Neglecting to use the authority of the criminal justice system or campus
proceedings to hold perpetrators of violence against women accountable
for their behavior.
- Imposing sanctions against victims of sexual assault, stalking, domestic
violence, or dating violence.
For more information about the Grants to Reduce Domestic Violence,
Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking on Campus Program,
please contact:
Office on Violence Against Women (OVW)
800 K Street, N.W., Suite 920
Washington, D.C. 20530
Phone: 202-307-6026
Fax: 202-307-3911
TTY: 202-307-2277
Website: www.usdoj.gov/ovw
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