Assessing Justice System Response to Violence Against Women

For many of us, the adage, "there is no place like home" conjures up images of warm, comfortable, family scenes. For millions of women in the United States, however, this phrase has a very different meaning. For these women, home is a place of intimidation, fear, and violence. Domestic violence continues to be the leading cause of injury to women. In fact, women are at greatest risk of becoming a victim of violent crime in their own homes. The violence is not just debilitating -- the injuries can be deadly. According to the 1995 FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting system (URC), 26 percent of female homicides are perpetrated by husbands, ex-husbands, or boyfriends (for those cases in which the victim-offender relationship is known).

Even if she is free of physical or sexual abuse in an intimate relationship, a woman faces the risk of being sexually assaulted by an acquaintance or stranger. Sexual assault is acknowledged to be the most under-reported violent crime on which national statistics are kept. Even so, the redesigned 1992-1993 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) estimated approximately 500,000 women are the victims of some form of rape or sexual assault each year. In 75 percent of the cases, the victim knows the offender.

Stalking is another violent crime that plagues many women. Only recently has the justice system and the public recognized stalking as a distinct and serious crime, rather than an antecedent to other crimes. Beyond highly publicized cases involving celebrities and political leaders, there is still little understanding of stalking as a crime, and few people acknowledge it as one that affects "ordinary" people. In contrast to these highly publicized cases, the majority of stalkers know their victims, and much stalking occurs within the context of domestic violence, particularly when victims try to leave their batterers. A survey, jointly sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluded that one out of every twelve American women has been stalked sometime during her life.

Perpetrators of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking discriminate against no one. Women of all ages, races, cultural and social backgrounds are victims of these violent crimes. The impact of these crimes extends to families, the workplace, and all of our communities.

Over the last two decades, dramatic changes have occurred in the public response to violence against women. Prior to the mid-1980's, the failure of the justice system to take these crimes seriously reinforced the escalating, recurring and often lethal nature of domestic violence and stalking. In this regard, the law - and those responsible for upholding the law - reflected society's tolerance of intimate violence, its prejudices against victims of violence against women, and its ignorance of the complexities of the issues implicit in these crimes.

In the mid-1970's, survivors and advocates gave voice to women who had previously been silent. The battered women's and anti-rape movements demanded additional legal protections and a full range of services for victims. By the late 1970's, a limited number of jurisdictions had initiated legal reforms. Some states passed new civil and criminal laws giving greater protection to victims and enforcing penalties on perpetrators. Criminal justice agencies, some funded under the Law Enforcement Assistance Agency ("LEAA") Family Violence Program, trained personnel, developed innovative policies, and modified jobs to comply with the new laws.

As research began to document the relationship between violence at home and violence in our society as a whole, the criminal justice system looked for ways to stop violence against women. Ongoing advocacy by women's agencies representing battered women and sexual assault victims helped communities understand an effective response required systematic and coordinated change, involving both justice agencies and community providers.

While an increasing number of jurisdictions have undertaken initiatives in recent years to respond to sexual assault and domestic violence, the efforts are sporadic. Laws protecting victims and holding offenders accountable vary, limited numbers of criminal justice personnel are trained to enforce the law, and only some communities have embraced a coordinated response to reduce violence against women with clear strategies for intervention.

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