Lawmakers Can Safely Ignore Dire Warnings of Mass Abuse

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Lawmakers Can Safely Disregard Dire Warnings of Mass Abuse

WASHINGTON / February 8, 2021 – The Coalition to End Domestic Violence is warning lawmakers about claims of widespread abuse that have little or no basis in fact. Such fake claims are harmful because they undermine the credibility of real victims, dissipate limited law enforcement and social services resources, and undercut the credibility of the broader movement to end abuse.

Three recent examples illustrate the problem:

1. Super Bowl Sex Trafficking

The Super Bowl, held this past Sunday in Tampa Bay, offers the most recent example. Law enforcement officials issued repeated warnings, spot-a-trafficker training was held for Uber drivers (1), and an art awareness project involving goats organized (2).

But journalist Elizabeth Nolan Brown reassured her readers, “So, here is your annual reminder that there’s no truth to the idea that forced and underage prostitution pick up around the Super Bowl (or other big sporting events), nor that ‘human traffickers’ will descend on the city where it takes place. Tampa can rest easy (at least about that), and we can all marvel at the persistence and audacity of this myth.” (3)

2. COVID-Abuse

Last week Time magazine ran an article with the provocative title, “Domestic Violence Is a Pandemic Within the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The article quoted a manager of the Women’s Empowerment and Recovery Educators: “COVID doesn’t make an abuser, But COVID exacerbates it. It gives them more tools, more chances to control you. The abuser says, ‘You can’t go out; you’re not going anywhere,’ and the government also is saying, ‘You have to stay in.’” (4)

But the article did not acknowledge that domestic violence reports are cyclical in nature, typically increasing in the Spring and declining in the Fall. Failing to recognize these trends would conflate COVID-related abuse with normally occurring changes in police reporting. Indeed, five reviews of police reports reached very different conclusions from the Time article, which are summarized here (5):

The National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice concluded, based on reports from 13 cities, that there had been “No significant change in domestic violence over the previous year.”
The Marshall Project found declines in domestic violence cases in Chicago, IL, Austin, TX, and Chandler, AZ, ranging from 13% to 23%.
The Coalition to End Domestic Violence compiled police reports from 33 police departments around the country, which revealed steady numbers of domestic violence calls in 19 departments, small increases in three departments, and decreases in 11 jurisdictions.
In 67 large cities across the country, the Major Cities Chiefs Association reported a 16% decrease in reported rapes during the first 9 months of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.

3. Stalking

In January, Department of Justice official Laura Rogers claimed that “stalking of the victim by the offender is a frequent precursor of the sexual assault.” Her post expounded on the issue of stalking as if it were a proven risk factor for sexual assault.

But no research studies have identified stalking as a risk factor of sexual assault (6). Rogers’ false statement served to divert programmatic focus away from proven risk factors such as homelessness and alcohol abuse.

Such false statements also serve to remove attention from long-ignored male victims of abuse.

Each year there are 4.2 million male victims of domestic violence, compared to 3.5 million female victims, according to the CDC (7). Likewise, Black men are at higher risk of partner abuse than Black women. Each year, 1.5 million Black men are victims of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual violence, compared to 1.4 million Black women (8).

The Coalition to End Domestic Violence urges lawmakers to carefully evaluate claims of gender victimization and assure such assertions are based on valid research and government surveys, not anecdote or conjecture.

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