The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which represents a network of approximately 2,000 battered women's shelters and community-based programs, as well as individual battered and formerly battered women throughout the nation, submits this testimony in support of H.R. 1248 -- the VAWA Reauthorization bill.

The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 or "VAWA" was historic, because it recognized that we, as a nation, have a responsibility to respond to domestic violence, sexual assault and all forms of violence against women. When VAWA was passed a few years ago, it was designed to improve services and programs available to battered women and to give them access to safety and justice. Among other things, it bolstered prosecution of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse, increased victim services, increased resources for law enforcement, and created a National Domestic Violence Hotline. These programs have saved lives and taken a great forward stride in the quest to end violence against women in our nation.

Having the support of Congress and the resources of the federal government has been a crucial component of the struggle in all of our communities to serve women and children victimized by domestic violence. In particular, the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the increase in funding for local shelters and programs has been critical for battered women. Unfortunately, this age-old problem cannot be completely solved in a few years. In fact, efforts to reform our state and local systems have inspired more women to come forward, putting new strains on services. Considering that many of the programs in VAWA have either expired or will expire in the coming year, there is a pressing need to reauthorize VAWA. H.R. 1248 reauthorizes existing programs under VAWA. It also makes changes to some of the programs to help them run more effectively and introduces additional provisions to meet the present day need of domestic violence victims.

VAWA is Making a Difference in the Lives of Our Families

Grants distributed through the Violence Against Women Act are allowing communities to address their specific needs. For example, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV) was awarded VAWA funding to create a statewide rural initiative for the establishment of victims services in five rural counties, where limited or no services had previously existed. The initial three years of the project focused on establishing a community infrastructure to ensure long-term financial sustainability of direct service provisions. FCADV developed a community-organizing model that focused on creating coordinated community support. Successful utilization of the model enabled each county to create a domestic violence task force, increase public awareness, secure private funding, establish a rural outreach office and provide domestic and sexual violence outreach services. During 1997-98, FCADV received VAWA funding to replicate these successes in eleven additional communities. Thirteen rural outreach offices, serving over 3,000 victims and fourteen domestic and sexual violence task forces that serve nineteen counties, were established as a direct result of the FCADV statewide rural initiative. As of December 31, 1998, the initial five pilot counties were removed from VAWA funding, as they were able to secure private funding through community resources. The goal of the rural initiative is to utilize VAWA funding as seed money to establish rural outreach services and create the community infrastructure necessary to financially sustain long term direct service provisions.

VAWA funding is also being used effectively in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. Recently awarded funds will allow the Bensalem Police Department to create a coordinated response to domestic violence in collaboration with victims advocates including A Woman's Place, National Organization for Victim Assistance, Libertae, and Betz-Dearborn. Funds will support the continuation of a computer program that compiles domestic violence-related arrests to include offender, victim, and arresting officer information, as well as case disposition. The grant will also allow the police department to employ a detective and domestic violence coordinator, and implement a pilot domestic response team. They will also provide community-based crisis shelter, child care, and transportation to victims to assure support for the victim in obtaining Protection From Abuse Orders and attend preliminary hearings and trials. Grant funds will allow participants to establish a protocol for the use of temporary crisis housing and transportation for women and children. In addition, the Bensalem Police Department will provide training and education for business and community groups about domestic violence in the work place.

One last example of how VAWA funding has made a difference comes from Virginia. After it noticed a sharp increase in the number of reported domestic violence cases, the Virginia Beach Police Department obtained a STOP Grant to hire two Domestic Violence Investigators to assist the Domestic Violence Unit. The Investigators build on the initial response of first responding patrol officers by applying state-of-the-art investigative techniques. Investigators work closely with local community-based victim service programs and the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. Since coming to the Unit in 1997, the Investigators have trained over 250 police officers regarding proper response to domestic violence cases. They have also assisted with over 900 cases.

All of these examples are included in the attached document entitled Success Stories from the Frontlines: How VAWA 1994 Funding Has Changed the Face of Violence Against Women and Their Families Nationwide. This document, organized by state, represents a sampling of the innovative programs implemented or expanded using VAWA funds throughout the country. I encourage all members of Congress to study this document and take pride in the investment that Congress made with VAWA. Also attached is a publication entitled Eight Days: A Snapshot of Violence Against Women and Girls in America. This document compiles a sampling of crisis calls collected during one week in July, 1999 from more than 70 shelters, hotlines and rape crisis centers throughout the country. This document is a testament not only to the violence still being suffered by women in every corner of our nation, but also to the people working on the front lines to respond to those crises on a daily basis and struggling to find funding to keep their doors open.

Battered Women and Their Children Still Struggle to Find Safety

Nearly one in every three adult women experiences at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood.⁽¹⁾ According to the U.S. Department of Justice, young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of violence by current or former intimate partners.⁽²⁾

Indeed, forty percent of teenage girls between the ages of 14 and 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.⁽³⁾ Translated into actual numbers through the National Crime Victimization Survey data from the Department of Justice (a conservative estimate) between 1992 and 1996, women and girls over 12 experienced, on average, 960,000 incidents of assault, rape and murder at the hands of a current or former spouse or intimate partner annually. Among all female murder victims annually, approximately 30 percent are slain by husbands or boyfriends.⁽⁴⁾ Only three percent of the male victims were known to have been slain by wives or girlfriends.⁽⁵⁾ Violence continues in the lives of women and children in our nation at an unacceptable rate. While we have made great strides in addressing the problem, there is work yet to be done.

The Reauthorization of VAWA (H.R. 1248) is Critical to the Lives of Battered Women and Their Children

VAWA programs are making a difference in women's lives. These programs must be continued in order to reach our goal of ensuring the safety of all women and children. The VAWA Reauthorization Bill (H.R. 1248) continues Congress' 1994 commitment to end violence in the lives of women and their children. By evaluating the successes of VAWA, it improves programs, based on what we have learned in the past few years about the changing needs of battered women and services. Here are some highlights of the pivotal programs that we must reauthorize.

Law Enforcement and Prosecution Grants to Combat Violence Against Women, commonly referred to as STOP grants, have been instrumental in providing states the tools that they need to address violence against women in their communities. This is a population based formula grant that brings service providers, law enforcement, prosecution and other advocates together to create a system which works for their communities to ensure that no battered women fall through the cracks. It allows those working on the front lines to combine their efforts to make a difference. H.R. 1248 reauthorizes and amends STOP grants to increase funds and to ensure that domestic violence and sexual assault advocates, as well as state courts, are involved in the collaborative planning and implementation of programs. In order to respond to the continuing needs of the states and provide the most effective system responses to victims, the bill refines the formula for distribution of funds in the states by increasing the investment in victim services and adding an investment in state courts (i.e., 35% to victim services, 20% to prosecution, 20% to law enforcement, 10% to state courts, and 15% discretionary with language to ensure that there will be no harm to existing programs). It is critical to reauthorize STOP grants, with these improvements, for another five years in order give states the means to provide safety and justice.

Grants for battered women's shelters and services are imperative to saving lives. A battered woman is often caught in a "catch-22." To stay in her own home often means to endure vicious beatings and controlling abuse, and to live in fear of the day when her batterer may finally kill her. However, a woman and her children are in greatest danger immediately after she makes a decision to leave her batterer. While some battered women are lucky enough to have family and friends to rely on during that time of crisis, many women have no alternative but to seek refuge at a battered women's shelter. With the Congressional investment in shelters and services over the past several years, we have been able to dramatically increase the number of battered women and their children for whom we are able to provide a temporary safe haven and services to transition them to a life free of violence. However, shelters must still turn away victims in crisis due to lack of space, and many rural communities throughout the country have no safe shelter for these women. H.R. 1248 amends the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act to authorize $1 billion to battered women's shelters over the next five years, including additional oversight and review and new proposals for training and technical assistance.

The creation of the National Domestic Violence Hotline by Congress in 1994 has provided a critical tool in helping battered women. Housed in Texas, this national toll-free Hotline has seen growing numbers of victims of domestic violence coming forward to make the first call. Currently, the Hotline averages 9,000 calls per month in 139 languages and they have answered more than 370,000 calls for help in the four years of their existence. A sophisticated system allows the Hotline operator to patch the caller in to the service provider located in the area nearest to the caller. This unique system makes the Hotline a decisive resource for battered women. It is important to maintain this national resource and to expand its services to address victims of rape and sexual assault. H.R. 1248 reauthorizes funding for the National Domestic Violence Hotline for another five years, including additional oversight and review prior to reauthorization.

Education and training for judges and court personnel is an essential element to effective administration of justice in domestic violence cases. In order to provide adequate protections to battered women and their children, the court system must understand the nature of domestic violence and the impact that it can have on all members of the family. Research shows that between 50 and 70% of men who abuse their female partners also abuse their children.⁽⁶⁾ We also know that children who witness violence are at a high risk of anxiety and depression, and exhibit more aggressive, antisocial, inhibited and fearful behaviors.⁽⁷⁾ According to one study, 5% of abusive fathers threaten during visitation to kill the mother, 34% threaten to kidnap their children, and 25% threaten to hurt their children.⁽⁸⁾ Finally, according to a 1996 report by the American Psychological Association (APA), custody and visitation disputes are more frequent when there is a history of domestic violence. Further, fathers who batter mothers are twice as likely to seek sole custody of their children⁽⁹⁾ and they may misuse the legal system as a forum for continuing abuse through harassing and retaliatory legal actions. This is information that needs to be available to judges and others in the judicial system who play such an instrumental role in helping families to find safety. H.R. 1248 reauthorizes funding for federal and state judicial training on violence against women and adds a training component regarding domestic violence and child abuse in custody determinations.

The grants to encourage arrest policies created under the Violence Against Women Act have provided an essential tool to police departments throughout the country in the struggle to end violence against women. H.R. 1248 reauthorizes funding for implementation of pro-arrest policies in domestic violence cases; coordinates computer tracking of cases to ensure communication among police, prosecution and courts; and strengthens legal advocacy programs for victims.

Grants designed to address rural domestic violence and child abuse enforcement under VAWA have already made a difference in hundreds of communities who previously did not have the infrastructure needed to address domestic violence and child abuse. These grants have allowed communities to develop that infrastructure and finally give those suffering victims of violence a way out (see example above of the innovative work that has been done in Florida rural communities). But many rural communities throughout the country are still crying out for help. H.R. 1248 reauthorizes funding for the establishment of cooperative efforts among law enforcement, prosecutors and victim advocacy groups to provide investigation, prosecution, counseling, treatment, and education with respect to domestic violence and child abuse in rural communities.

We would also like to highlight the need to address sexual assault through rape prevention education. One in six women has experienced an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.⁽¹⁰⁾ According to a 1992 survey, 62 percent of all forcible rape cases occurred to victims who were under 17 years of age; 32 percent of victims of rape were between 11 and 17 years old; 29 percent of victims were younger than 11 years old.⁽¹¹⁾ And according to the U.S. Department of Education, there were an estimated 4,000 incidents of rape or other types of sexual assault in public schools across the country during the 1996-1997 school year.⁽¹²⁾ In order to protect women and girls of all ages, we must continue to invest in prevention strategies to address sexual assault and expand access to information. H.R. 1248 establishes a National Resource Center on Sexual Assault; reauthorizes and increases funds for rape prevention and education; helps states provide technical assistance, information dissemination, and educational programs; and allots money for the creation of tribal sexual assault coalitions to do advocacy work to protect women on tribal lands and in tribal communities.

The programs described above represent the cornerstones of the Violence Against Women Act which are in need of reauthorization. However, there are a number of other important pieces of the puzzle that are addressed by the Reauthorization Bill (H.R. 1248). It reauthorizes funding for national stalker and domestic violence reduction through the improvement of local, state and national crime databases for tracking stalking and domestic violence. It also reauthorizes funding for Victim/Witness Counselors in the prosecution of sex crimes and domestic violence under federal law, as well as funding for court-appointed Special Advocates for victims of child abuse. The bill reauthorizes funding for street-based outreach, education, treatment, counseling and referrals for runaway, homeless, and street youth who have been abused or are at risk of abuse and funding for specialized grants for coordinated community initiatives to address violence against women comprehensively. The reauthorization of VAWA for another five years through H.R. 1248 will allow Congress to continue this broad-based approach to addressing domestic violence and sexual assault that has made such a difference in communities throughout our nation and in the lives of women.

The Cost of Failing to Address Violence Against Women

The VAWA Reauthorization Bill is an investment in a society that may someday be free of violence against women and children. The return on this investment, however, can be measured not only in the lives that we save and the suffering that we end, but it can also be measured in financial terms. In 1994, approximately 37% of women seeking injury-related treatment in hospital emergency rooms were there because of injuries inflicted by a current or former spouse or intimate partner.⁽¹³⁾ Moreover, the average annual cost of medical care for abused women, children and elderly persons is $1,633 per person, with 2% of abused women requiring medical care costing $5,345.63 per hospital stay.⁽¹⁴⁾ A recent survey found that over 50% of abused women lost at least three days of work monthly due to abuse,⁽¹⁵⁾ 24% of abused working women reported losing a job,⁽¹⁶⁾ and surveys show at least 60% of abused women report being late for work due to abuse.⁽¹⁷⁾ Of all homeless women and children, 50% are fleeing domestic violence.⁽¹⁸⁾ We cannot afford NOT to address this problem at its root. The price tag to reauthorize VAWA to continue and expand the core services addressing violence against women in our nation is a bargain compared to allowing violence against women to go unchecked.

Conclusion

Eighty-two percent of Americans say that they would do something to help reduce domestic violence if they knew what to do.⁽¹⁹⁾ It is in the hands of Congress now to take the next great stride in ending domestic violence and sexual assault in our nation by passing H.R. 1248. We at the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence recognize and applaud the initiative of Congress in passing the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. We urge you now to take this opportunity to continue to make a difference in the lives of millions of women throughout the nation. We call on every member to demonstrate their commitment to ending violence against women by supporting this vital new legislation.

ENDNOTES

1. American Psychological Association, Violence and the Family: Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family 10 (1996).

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3.

4. Lawrence A. Greenfeld, et al, Violence By Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes By Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends and Girlfriends 3 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998).

5. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States 1995: Uniform Crime Reports.

6. See, e.g., Lee H. Bowker, Michelle Arbitell & Richard McFerron, "On the Relationship Between Wife Beating and Child Abuse," in Kersti Ylllo & Michele Bograd, eds., Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse 158, 162 (1988); M.A. Strauss and R.J. Gelles, Physical Violence in American Families (1990).

7. Einat Peled, Peter G. Jaffe and Jeffrey L. Edelson, Ending the Cycle of Violence: Community Responses to Battered Women 4-5 (1995); Mary Kenning, Antia Merchant and Alan Thompkins, "Research on the Effects of Witnessing Parental Battering: Clinical and Legal Policy Responses" 238-39, in Woman Battering: Policy Responses 237 (Michael Steinmen, ed., 1991).

8. Joan Zorza, Protecting the Children in Custody Disputes When One Parent Abuses the Other, 29 Clearninghouse rev. 1113, 119 (1996).

9. Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, Violence and the Family 40 (1996).

10. National Institute of Justice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey (November 1998).

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13. Michael Rand, Violence-Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Room Departments 5 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997).

14. Louise Laurence & Roberta Spalter-Roth. Measuring the Costs of Domestic Violence Against Women and the Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions: An Initial Assessment and Proposals for Further Research. Institute for Women's Policy Research, Victims Services, Inc. and the Domestic Violence Training Project, May 1996 (final report to the Rockefeller Foundation).

15. Connie Stanley, Domestic Violence: An Occupational Impact Study 17 (Tulsa, Oklahoma, July 27, 1992); Louise Laurence & Roberta Spalter-Roth, Measuring the Costs of Domestic Violence Against Women and the Cost Effectiveness of Interventions 25 (IWPR, Victims' Services & the Domestic Violence Training Project, May 1996). Domestic Violence...(DV facts)

16. Louise Laurence & Roberta Spalter-Roth. Measuring the Costs of Domestic Violence Against Women and the Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions: An Initial Assessment and Proposals for Further Research. Institute for Women's Policy Research, Victims Services, Inc. and the Domestic Violence Training Project, May 1996 (final report to the Rockefeller Foundation).

17. Melanie Shepard & Ellen Pence, The Effect of Battering on the Employment Status of Women, 3 Affilia 55, 58 (1988); see also Laurence & Spalter-Roth at 25.

18. The Women and Housing Task Force, Unlocking the Door III: A Call to Action, Battered Women, September 1996 (citing Schneider, Elizabeth, Legal Reform Efforts for Battered Women: Past, Present and Future (prepared for the Ford Foundation, July 1990)).

19. National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence Awareness Project: October 1999, citing. Lieberman Research, Inc. Domestic Violence Advertising Campaign Tracking Survey. Wave II - November 1995. Prepared for: The Advertising Council and Family Prevention Fund.