S1197OCT7

TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending October 7, 2005

S.1197 A bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.

BRIEF

The bill reauthorizes funds for the 1968 law that aims to prevent violence against women. Funds would be spent on grants to combat such violence and to improve court responses. Domestic violence, the bill holds, costs taxpayers $127 billion yearly.

The bill adds cyber-stalking to the list of prohibited activities and doubles penalties for repeat violence.

Grants can be awarded to programs serving the violence prevention needs of those of age 12 to 24 and to develop a response to families where domestic violence and child mistreatment exists. The bill would aim to increase and strengthen home visits and healthcare response and to reduce such violence on college campuses and develop long-term housing for victims who are also homeless. Bill text explains that response mechanisms would include, “comprehensive victim service and support centers, such as family justice centers, designed to bring together victim advocates from non-profit, non-governmental victim services organizations, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, probation officers, governmental victim assistants, forensic medical professionals, civil legal attorneys, chaplains, legal advocates, representatives from community-based organizations and other relevant public or private agencies or organizations into one centralized location, in order to improve safety, access to services, and confidentiality for victims and families.” Improving court response would include training of court personnel and improving internal operations of courts in response to such crimes. Grants will not be given to an entity that requires a victim or alleged offender to take a polygraph test in order for the investigation to continue.

A victim who is also a public employee would be allowed limited emergency leave.

Human trafficking, too, is addressed with a provision granting the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine if an alien is or has been a victim of severe trafficking and vacates a provision that makes an illegal alien inadmissible upon demonstrating that the alien is illegally here because of being a victim of trafficking.

Finally, the bill would allow Indian law enforcement access to criminal databases in the event of domestic violence and would create a national tribal sex offender registry.

Sponsor: Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE)

Vote: Passed Senate amended by Unanimous Consent October 4, 2005

Cost to the taxpayers: $3.9 billion through 2010 would be authorized. CBO calculates that about $2.7 billion would be spent if that much is appropriated.

MORE INFORMATION

Congress finds the following:

(1) Nearly 1/3 of American women report physical or sexual abuse by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives.

(2) According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 248,000 Americans 12 years of age and older were raped or sexually assaulted in 2002.

(3) Rape and sexual assault in the United States is estimated to cost $127,000,000,000 per year, including--

(A) lost productivity;

(B) medical and mental health care;

(D) social services;

(E) loss of and damage to property; and

(F) reduced quality of life.

(4) Nonreporting of sexual assault in rural areas is a particular problem because of the high rate of nonstranger sexual assault.

(5) Geographic isolation often compounds the problems facing sexual assault victims. The lack of anonymity and accessible support services can limit opportunities for justice for victims.

(6) Domestic elder abuse is primarily family abuse. The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study found that the perpetrator was a family member in 90 percent of cases.

(7) Barriers for older victims leaving abusive relationships include--

(A) the inability to support themselves;

(B) poor health that increases their dependence on the abuser;

(D) ineffective responses by domestic abuse programs and law enforcement.

(8) Disabled women comprise another vulnerable population with unmet needs. Women with disabilities are more likely to be the victims of abuse and violence than women without disabilities because of their increased physical, economic, social, or psychological dependence on others.

(9) Many women with disabilities also fail to report the abuse, since they are dependent on their abusers and fear being abandoned or institutionalized.

(10) Of the 598 battered women's programs surveyed--

(A) only 35 percent of these programs offered disability awareness training for their staff; and

(B) only 16 percent dedicated a staff member to provide services to women with disabilities.

(11) Problems of domestic violence are exacerbated for immigrants when spouses control the immigration status of their family members, and abusers use threats of refusal to file immigration papers and threats to deport spouses and children as powerful tools to prevent battered immigrant women from seeking help, trapping battered immigrant women in violent homes because of fear of deportation.

(12) Battered immigrant women who attempt to flee abusive relationships may not have access to bilingual shelters or bilingual professionals, and face restrictions on public or financial assistance. They may also lack assistance of a certified interpreter in court, when reporting complaints to the police or a 9-1-1 operator, or even in acquiring information about their rights and the legal system.

(13) More than 500 men and women call the National Domestic Violence Hotline every day to get immediate, informed, and confidential assistance to help deal with family violence.

(14) The National Domestic Violence Hotline service is available, toll-free, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, with bilingual staff, access to translators in 150 languages, and a TTY line for the hearing-impaired.

(15) With access to over 5,000 shelters and service providers across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands, the National Domestic Violence Hotline provides crisis intervention and immediately connects callers with sources of help in their local community.

(16) Approximately 60 percent of the callers indicate that calling the Hotline is their first attempt to address a domestic violence situation and that they have not called the police or any other support services.

(17) Between 2000 and 2003, there was a 27 percent increase in call volume at the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

(18) Improving technology infrastructure at the National Domestic Violence Hotline and training advocates, volunteers, and other staff on upgraded technology will drastically increase the Hotline's ability to answer more calls quickly and effectively.

Congress finds the following:

(1) Youth, under the age of 18, account for 67 percent of all sexual assault victimizations reported to law enforcement officials.

(2) The Department of Justice consistently finds that young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rate of non-fatal intimate partner violence.

(3) In 1 year, over 4,000 incidents of rape or sexual assault occurred in public schools across the country.

(4) Young people experience particular obstacles to seeking help. They often do not have access to money, transportation, or shelter services. They must overcome issues such as distrust of adults, lack of knowledge about available resources, or pressure from peers and parents.

(5) A needs assessment on teen relationship abuse for the State of California, funded by the California Department of Health Services, identified a desire for confidentiality and confusion about the law as 2 of the most significant barriers to young victims of domestic and dating violence seeking help.

(6) Only one State specifically allows for minors to petition the court for protection orders.

(7) Many youth are involved in dating relationships, and these relationships can include the same kind of domestic violence and dating violence seen in the adult population. In fact, more than 40 percent of all incidents of domestic violence involve people who are not married.

(8) 40 percent of girls ages 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend, and 13 percent of college women report being stalked.

(9) Of college women who said they had been the victims of rape or attempted rape, 12.8 percent of completed rapes, 35 percent of attempted rapes, and 22.9 percent of threatened rapes took place on a date. Almost 60 percent of the completed rapes that occurred on campus took place in the victim's residence.

(10) According to a 3-year study of student-athletes at 10 Division I universities, male athletes made up only 3.3 percent of the general male university population, but they accounted for 19 percent of the students reported for sexual assault and 35 percent of domestic violence perpetrators.

`Congress finds that--

`(1) the former United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse suggests that domestic violence may be the single major precursor to child abuse and neglect fatalities in this country;

`(2) studies suggest that as many as 10,000,000 children witness domestic violence every year;

`(3) studies suggest that among children and teenagers, recent exposure to violence in the home was a significant factor in predicting a child's violent behavior;

`(4) a study by the Nurse-Family Partnership found that children whose parents did not participate in home visitation programs that provided coaching in parenting skills, advice and support, were almost 5 times more likely to be abused in their first 2 years of life;

`(5) a child's exposure to domestic violence seems to pose the greatest independent risk for being the victim of any act of partner violence as an adult;

`(6) children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to believe that using violence is an effective means of getting one's needs met and managing conflict in close relationships;

`(7) children exposed to abusive parenting, harsh or erratic discipline, or domestic violence are at increased risk for juvenile crime; and

`(8) in a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent of men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children.

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