The following post appears courtesy of Susan B. Carbon, Director, Office on Violence Against Women

By re-establishing the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women, Attorney General Eric Holder is bringing together a group of people who are committed to sharing their expertise, knowledge and advice to improve the Nation’s response to violence against women.  The first meeting, held January 28, brought this group together for their initial introductions, presentations and small group discussions.

The 15-member committee provides advice to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on responses to domestic violence and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking crimes, with a focus on children and teens who are affected by the violence.

The diversity of the group will contribute to various viewpoints and expert opinions focusing on successful interventions with children and teens who witness and/or are victimized by intimate partners and sexual violence and the link between the well-being of children and mothers.  Working to end violence in families and in communities remains one of the Attorney General’s highest priorities. 

In 2010, he launched the Defending Childhood initiative with the goal of preventing children’s exposure to violence, mitigating the negative impacts of exposure when it does occur, and developing knowledge and spreading awareness about the issue. 

When the Violence Against Women Act was enacted over 16 years ago, we recognized that to confront the issues of domestic and sexual violence, meaningful collaborative partnerships between advocates, educators, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, the judiciary, medical and mental health professionals and community leaders were required.   This is why it is so beneficial to have the NAC – with its myriad disciplines – to explore the next steps and new directions with the goal of breaking the cycle of violence that plagues so many children and youth.

We are grateful to the commitment of each of the committee members for sharing their time and expertise to provide practical and policy guidance to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services and strengthen our work as we move forward.  The membership of the committee consists of:  Jeffrey L. Edleson, St. Paul, MN;  Maria Jose Fletcher, Miami, FL;  Neil Irvin, Washington, DC; Amber Johnson, Providence,  RI; Monika Johnson Hostler, Raleigh, NC; Debbie Lee, San Francisco, CA; Susan Manheimer, San Mateo, CA;  Betsy McAlister Groves, Boston, MA; Carol Post, Wilmington, DE;  Francine Sherman, Newton, MA;  Melvin Stoof, Tucson, AZ; Joe Torre, New York, NY; Jerry Tello, Hacienda Heights, CA, Gabrielle Union, Beverly Hills, CA; Sujata Warrier, New York, NY.

More information about the National Advisory Committee and its members is available at http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/

The following post appears courtesy of Susan B. Carbon, Director of the Office on Violence Against Women

January’s observance as national stalking awareness month gives me an opportunity to join with our federal, national, local and individual partners to once again focus on a crime that affects over one million adults in America every year.

The statistics reflect, but often do not measure, the toll that this crime takes on the emotional, professional, academic and personal lives of its victims. In fact, stalking is not limited to those over 18 and is experienced by many adolescents and teens.

Friends, families and communities are affected by this complex and often dangerous crime, sometimes mischaracterized as harmless or misinterpreted as expressions of concern and even love. Stalking is often hard to recognize. Sometimes, considered as bothersome and intrusive, it is ignored. Technological advances are an added tool used by stalkers to intimidate and control their victims. Many do not report their experiences to law enforcement because it is not immediately recognized as a crime. Some are unaware that it is defined as such in every state.

The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) believes that the motto to “KNOW IT, NAME IT, AND STOP IT” captures the focus of January’s awareness campaign. Emotional responses to stalking include feeling afraid, vulnerable, anxious, depressed, stressed, unsafe and confused. The Stalking Resource Center of the National Center for Victims of Crime —launched in 2000 in partnership with OVW —provides resources to victims and those who respond and support them. The awareness campaigns are a call to action to speak out about the crime, report it and engage others in an ongoing dialogue. Educating ourselves and each other is an important step to encouraging and supporting victims to report the crime and stop the abuse.

As President Obama said in his Stalking Awareness Month Proclamation, “Stalking affects too many Americans to remain a hidden crime, and a strong stand is required in order to both support victims and hold perpetrators accountable.”

We join with the President and the Attorney General in getting out the word about this serious crime and continuing our commitment throughout this month and the coming year.

Dear Friends,

This past month I had the honor of attending and speaking at the 12th National Indian Nations Conference along with United States Attorney General Eric Holder and over 900 participants from the field. This conference brought together Native American victims, victim advocates, tribal leaders, victim service providers, law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, medical providers, social services and mental health personnel, probation/corrections experts, and juvenile justice personnel, as well as federal and state agency representatives. Attendees shared their knowledge, experiences and ideas for developing programs that serve the unique needs of crime victims in Indian Country. Here, I was able to share some of the important work we, as well as our partners across the federal government, are doing to address issues of domestic violence and sexual assault in tribal communities.

For example, in 2010 the Office on Violence Against Women made its first 12 awards under the Tribal Sexual Assault Services Grant Program, totaling $3.6 million to help address sexual assault specifically in Indian nations. Also this year, through intra-agency work at the Department of Justice, we helped combine ten different Tribal grant programs into the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation, or CTAS. Through the CTAS process, OVW awarded a total of $37.8 million to over 70 Tribal governments and their designees to address issues of violence in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

Recently, we provided funding for the establishment of a national clearinghouse on sexual assault for Native women; a one-stop shop where tribes can request on-site training and technical assistance on developing tribal sexual assault codes, establishing Sexual Assault Response Teams, and accessing tools to gain sexual assault forensic evidence collection certifications. Next year, we will fund as many as five tribes to participate in a special prosecution initiative in partnership with their local U.S. Attorney. This project will provide additional resources and authority to tribal prosecutors, who will be cross-designated as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys to bring domestic violence and sexual assault cases in tribal and federal court. These individuals will also help promote higher quality investigations, improve issue-specific trainings in tribal communities, and create better inter-governmental communication.

The Conference came on the heels of President Obama’s groundbreaking signing of the Tribal Law and Order Act, which will greatly improve the Federal Government’s ability to better understand, and address, public safety challenges in tribal nations with a specific focus on addressing issues of violence against women. Women in tribal communities are three and a half times more likely to be victims of violent crime. An astounding one in three American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped in her lifetime. As President Obama stated in November of 2009, “This is an assault on our national conscience that we can no longer ignore.” We are proud to join with the White House to end these terrible crimes and look forward to the collaborative efforts of our office, the White House and the entire federal government to influence real social and legal change in these communities.

This month, we join the nationwide community in celebrating National Stalking Awareness Month. Stalking is a crime that is extremely complex, often misunderstood, and chronically under-reported. It is difficult to recognize, investigate and prosecute. Unlike other crimes, stalking is not an individual instance, but rather a series of acts that together comprise a general pattern of behavior. As President Obama stated in his proclamation of Stalking Awareness Month:

Stalking is a serious and pervasive crime that affects millions of Americans each year in communities throughout our country. Though we have gained a better understanding of stalking and its prevalence since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, this dangerous and criminal behavior is still often mischaracterized as harmless.

A study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows the astonishing prevalence of this crime: during a 12 month period, an estimated 3.4 million persons age 18 or older were victims of stalking. Stalking is a crime that affects every sect of a community: stalking impacts victims at home, at their places of employment, at social gatherings and other events, virtually anywhere a victim may go, including online in the form of cyberstalking.

What is most misunderstood is the dangerous correlation between stalking and more violent crimes. Research shows that individuals who stalk their partners are four times more likely to physically assault their partners than non-stalkers and are six times more likely to sexually assault their partners. The overlap of stalking and femicide is shocking: 54% of victims reported stalking to police before they were killed by their stalker. Sadly, only 40% of stalking victims report this crime to police. It is essential that we work together to not only educate the public about the severity of this crime, but that we respond more effectively as a community. As President Obama further discussed in his proclamation of National Stalking Awareness Month:

As a Nation, we have made progress, but much work remains to respond to this criminal behavior. We must work together to educate the public about the potentially deadly nature of stalking, to encourage victims to seek help, to inform criminal justice professionals about the intersection of stalking and other dangerous crimes, and to support law enforcement in their efforts. I call on all Americans to learn to recognize the signs of stalking, acknowledge stalking as a serious crime, and urge those impacted not to be afraid to speak out or ask for help. Let us also resolve to support victims and survivors, and to create communities that are secure and supportive for all Americans.

For more information about Stalking Awareness Month, we hope you will visit http://www.stalkingawarenessmonth.org/. Here, you will find resources for those impacted by this pervasive crime and actions that you can take in your community.

Finally, on behalf of Office on Violence Against Women, I would like to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year. Let us endeavor to make every effort possible to bring peace and safety to our communities. It is our wish that every person be safe and secure, and live in a community that embraces and cares for everyone’s well-being. May 2011 be a healthy and safe year for all.

With deep respect and gratitude,

Susan B. Carbon
OVW Director
U.S. Department of Justice

We remind all those in need of assistance, or other concerned friends and individuals, to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.

Dear Friends,

This past month, we joined the global community that recognized the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Each day, women and girls are attacked around the globe. Issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking are at epidemic proportions locally, as well as internationally. Across the world, at least one in three women and girls is domestically abused or sexually assaulted in her lifetime. Approximately four million women and girls are trafficked for prostitution annually. The Office on Violence Against Women and its partners are actively working to end these horrific crimes.

This past month the Office on Violence Against Women had the privilege of serving as the United States’ official observers at the Council of Europe’s Convention on Violence Against Women (the Council). There, we were able to contribute constructively to the important work of ending violence against women throughout Europe.

The Council had been charged with developing a visionary convention that would bind all 47 member-nations to provisions that will, collectively, bring an end to violence against women in Europe, specifically domestic violence, by the end of 2010. The final agreement is expected to be complete by the end of the year for subsequent ratification by all 47 countries in the Council. As observers, we were able to contribute thoughts and suggestions for the final document such as the importance of firearms restrictions in domestic violence civil and criminal cases, as well as protection orders. As we reported last month, the Office on Violence Against Women, in partnership with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, released new tools for communities to improve enforcement of protective orders. Civil Protection Orders: A Guide for Improving Practice will keep victims and their children safe by providing guidance to advocates, attorneys, judges, law enforcement officers and prosecutors to ensure that protective orders are issued, served and enforced throughout the United States. We offered this as an example of collaborative work in the United States that promotes a victim-centered approach to domestic violence and sexual assault cases. We are looking forward to the full dissemination and utilization of the document in the coming months. With President Obama’s his remarks at Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we are proud to be setting the standard internationally on the use of civil protection orders.

Commemoration of International Violence Against Women Day gives us pause to remember that all governments have more to do in fundamentally changing the way we address violence against women around the world.  As Vice President Biden stated in his statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women:

For every woman who has been beaten in her own home, for the millions of women who have been raped as a weapon of war, for every girl who has been attacked on her way to school, for all of the children – girls and boys – who have witnessed this brutality, we must do better.

Last week, we also joined the international community in celebrating World AIDS Day. Nearly 33 million individuals worldwide are infected with HIV/AIDS, nearly half of them women. The face of global HIV/AIDS is quickly becoming young and female. More than 75% of youth living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are young women and girls. In Indonesia, in 1989, women accounted for just 2.5 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS according to the National Commission on AIDS. By 2009, women accounted for 25.5 percent of all cases.

The connection between the spread of this catastrophic virus and violence against women is undeniable. For the millions of women living with HIV/AIDS, sexual assault is often the cause of their infection. Studies have shown that women living with HIV are more likely to have experienced violence, and women who have experienced violence are at greater risk for HIV infection worldwide. The stigma of HIV-positive status tends to impact a victim’s willingness to report violence. Dually, the stigma and fear of a victim’s experience with sexual assault often impacts her willingness to report HIV status or seek testing, and further reducing the likelihood she will seek or receive services, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle.

As President Obama stated in his proclamation of World AIDS Day:

More than one million Americans currently live with HIV/AIDS in the United States, and more than 56,000 become infected each year. For too long, this epidemic has loomed over our Nation and our world, taking a devastating toll on some of the most vulnerable among us. On World AIDS Day, we mourn those we have lost and look to the promise of a brighter future and a world without HIV/AIDS.

On a completely separate note, we are very excited to announce that our Office has moved. We are now located at 145 N Street NE, Suite 10W.121, Washington, DC 20530 along with many other parts of the Justice Department. Please be certain to make a note of our new address. All phone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses will remain the same.

Finally, I would like to extend my best wishes to everyone for a healthy, safe and peaceful holiday season and New Year. All of us at OVW are grateful for all the work you do, every day, to create meaningful justice in your communities. We couldn’t do it without you.

Happy Holidays!

Susan B. Carbon
OVW Director
U.S. Department of Justice

We remind all those in need of assistance, or other concerned friends and individuals, to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.

Dear Friends,

First and foremost, on behalf of the Office on Violence Against Women, let me congratulate all of our grantees and others in the field on a very successful Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Organizations from across the country spent this last month having important conversations, increasing awareness, and helping end domestic violence against women. We are proud of your efforts!

Additionally, it was an incredible honor for the White House to host an event centered on the Administration’s unprecedented coordination across the Federal government to combat violence against women on October 27th. President Obama, Vice President Biden, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Advisor on Violence Against Women Lynn Rosenthal addressed the need to continue to confront domestic and sexual violence in this country. The importance of better communication between law enforcement and direct service providers, enforcement of protective orders, and changing public attitudes were discussed at length. President Obama specifically highlighted the financial barriers of domestic violence and the need for emergency relocation and housing accommodations so that “no one has to choose between a violent home and no home at all.”

OVW spent Domestic Violence Awareness Month continuing our work on this important issue, as well as adding multiple events to raise awareness and understanding. In partnership with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, we released new tools for communities to improve enforcement of domestic violence protective orders. Civil Protection Orders: A Guide for Improving Practice will keep victims and their children safe by providing guidance to advocates, attorneys, judges, law enforcement officers and prosecutors to ensure that protective orders are issued, served and enforced throughout the United States. This Guide significantly updates and revises the original Guide for Effective Issuance & Enforcement of Protection Orders (aka The Burgundy Book) issued in 2005. It is available on our website.

The Office on Violence Against Women worked with Attorney General Holder to re-charter the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women (NAC) to provide advice and recommendations to the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services on how to improve the nation’s response to violence against women, with a specific focus on successful interventions with children and teens who witness and/or are victimized by domestic violence or sexual assault. The committee includes highly regarded advocates, justice system and child welfare professionals, and researchers.

Just prior to the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Defending Childhood Initiative was launched by Attorney General Eric Holder to protect children from the harmful consequences of experiencing and witnessing violence. The goals of the initiative are to prevent children’s exposure to violence as victims and witnesses, mitigate the negative effects experienced by children exposed to violence, and develop knowledge about and increase awareness of this issue.

OVW worked with the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to develop the “Sexual Assault Kit Backlog Action Research Project” to identify long term solutions to eliminating the backlog of untested sexual assault kits that have not yet been submitted to a crime laboratory.

In partnership with the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) and other national organizations, OVW launched a new virtual resource for employers to address the impacts of domestic violence in the workplace. “Workplaces Respond to Domestic and Sexual Violence: A National Resource Center” provides information, resources, tools, and technical assistance to employers and labor organizations to facilitate and encourage safer and more effective responses to employees who are victims of domestic, sexual and dating violence or stalking. The website can be found at: www.workplacesrespond.org.

I am also pleased to report that in response to the tremendous need of victims to have access to competent legal services, the Department of Justice, with assistance from the White House, launched “Access to Justice for Domestic Violence Victims.” The goal of this pilot project is to encourage more commitment from the private bar to provide pro bono legal services. Beginning in New Orleans and Baltimore, private law firms will hire law students who have participated in law school clinics and defer their start dates while they work at domestic violence service providers. The lawyers will help victims secure protective orders, navigate the family courts, and access safe housing.

Finally, the Office on Violence Against Women held a Department of Justice-wide Domestic Violence event that included a viewing of “Telling Amy’s Story,” a film produced by the Verizon Foundation and Penn State Public Broadcasting and released in May 2010, following a domestic violence homicide in College Park, PA that occurred in 2002. The film was followed by a facilitated discussion led by Detective Deirdri Fishel, featured in the film, about the importance of a coordinated, collaborative response to domestic violence.

As Domestic Violence Awareness Month has now closed, we begin our focus on April: Sexual Assault Awareness Month. When the Violence Against Women Act was passed in 1994, sexual assault was included as one of the crimes to be addressed. There is a general consensus, however, that for a variety of reasons, sexual assault has not received the same level of attention as has domestic violence. As a result, sexual assault remains a tragically pervasive and costly problem.

In preparation for what we hope to be a very effective Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April, we wanted to begin a national conversation about sexual violence: what it looks like now, and what we want to be able to accomplish in the next five years. With this in mind, OVW was proud to collaborate with the White House Council on Women and Girls to host a first-ever national sexual violence Roundtable. Advocates, law enforcement, judges, survivors, prosecutors, medical professionals and federal employees travelled from all across the country to heighten our discussions as well as develop a plan of action to address this unacceptable epidemic. While advocates and experts from the field discussed a public awareness campaign, federal experts were able to listen to the needs of the stakeholders on the ground and hear how the federal government can and should heighten their assistance to address sexual violence in America. The Roundtable allowed those in the field and at the national level to effectively communicate how each can help the other to achieve mutual success, both at the local and the national level, by establishing next steps to ultimately end sexual violence against women.

It is clear from our discussions, as well as the comments from the champions of this cause in the White House, that awareness must be a cornerstone to our actions moving forward. For many community members our advocates and experts interact with each day, the myths of sexual violence are prevalent and hard to un-learn. Contrary to what many Americans believe, sexual violence does not just occur in dark alleys, perpetrated by strangers. Sadly sexual violence is often perpetrated by someone known to the victim, in places where the victim feels the safest, such as at home or at a friend’s home. Sexual violence spans every demographic: every race, socioeconomic background, geographic location, sexual orientation, and age group. On average, one in six women will be sexually assault in her lifetime. For certain populations such as for women on college campus, in assisted living facilities and on Native American lands, this number increases to staggering levels. As President Obama stated: “It is simply unacceptable.”

In a country that has made such progress in addressing domestic violence, it is a moral imperative that we develop a national dialogue and focus on ending sexual violence against all women, children and men. As we continue our multi-disciplinary conversations about sexual violence in America, we will be asking for assistance from every member of the community. It will require each and every one of us to end this tragic problem. And as Vice President Biden stated at the White House last month, “It’s not about reducing; it’s about ending.” It’s not only time, it’s beyond time.

With deep respect and gratitude,

Susan B. Carbon
OVW Director
U.S. Department of Justice

We remind all those in need of assistance, or other concerned friends and individuals, to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.

Dear Friends,

This October, we at the Office on Violence Against Women are excited to observe the 23rd Annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Started in 1987 as a way to bring advocacy groups together around the common cause of ending violence against women, Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a time to recognize our achievements while drawing attention to the continuing needs for the movement to end violence against women. As President Obama stated in a proclamation announcing Domestic Violence Awareness Month:

Ending domestic violence requires a collaborative effort involving every part of our society. Our law enforcement and justice system must work to hold offenders accountable and to protect victims and their children. Business, faith, and community leaders, as well as educators, health care providers, and human service professionals, also have a role to play in communicating that domestic violence is always unacceptable. As a Nation, we must endeavor to protect survivors, bring offenders to justice, and change attitudes that support such violence.

Sixteen years after the Violence Against Women Act became law in 1994, we have made great strides in ending domestic violence. We have awarded millions of dollars in grants and cooperative agreements to organizations that help stop violence against women in all 50 states and every territory. We have raised awareness nationwide of the unsettling reality of the prevalence of domestic violence, and the breadth of its impact on all communities. Our battle to change social norms — to make domestic violence simply unacceptable – has saved lives in every corner of the country. For this, we can be grateful, but the fight is long from over.

One in four women will be the victim of domestic violence in her life. About 10% of students nationwide report being physically hurt by an intimate partner in the past year. For African American women, and women in Indian Country, the statistics are even worse. Domestic violence is a reality they ought not have to face. No one should. And when we look at domestic violence in its most lethal form, almost one-third of female homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an intimate partner. Domestic violence is a chronically underreported crime. It is a travesty, and it must end.

In honor of this important month, the Office on Violence Against Women will be hosting a national consultation with tribes about the way the federal government can help end the epidemic of violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women. Additionally, we will be meeting with grantees from across the country on various topics essential to ending violence against women: engaging men and youth, protecting children exposed to violence, addressing the needs of culturally specific communities, bridging the gap between domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy organizations, and engaging law enforcement and members of the court system to create a more safe and just system for victims, and one which will hold offenders accountable for their actions.

This month is a time for discussion, advocacy, new plans, and rejuvenated action. We hope you will join us in honoring this month by wearing purple on October 28th. We also hope this month will inspire you to talk to your friends and neighbors about the importance of raising awareness about the realities of domestic violence. Each year, an estimated 4.8 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner. These women are our family members, our colleagues, our neighbors and our friends. They are in every community, urban and rural; they cover every age and ethnic group, and every economic sphere, rich or poor. None of us is immune, but all of us must work to end this national tragedy. As President Obama concluded his proclamation of this important month:

This month – and throughout the year — let each of us resolve to be vigilant in recognizing and combating domestic violence in our own communities, and let us build a culture of safety and support for all those affected… I call on all Americans to speak out against domestic violence and support local efforts to assist victims of these crimes in finding the help and healing they need.

I hope this month will be the time you answer this call to action.

Finally, let me also take a moment to congratulate all of our recent grantee recipients. This year, the Office on Violence Against Women awarded over $365 million dollars to more than 750 organizations in communities across the country. I am humbled by the amazing work performed by each of these organizations. We at OVW are excited and privileged to help enable our grantees to tackle obstacles and achieve our shared goals of creating a nation free of fear, free of domestic violence.

With deep respect and gratitude,

Susan B. Carbon
OVW Director
U.S. Department of Justice

We remind all those in need of assistance, or other concerned friends and individuals, to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE.