PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Email: info@EndToDV.org

Violence Against Women Act: Do We Want a Law Based on Ideology or on Science?

WASHINGTON / July 12, 2021 – As debate continues on reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), lawmakers are turning their focus to the assumptions that underlie the 1994 law, asking whether the law is based more on ideology or science. In the words of a National Academy of Sciences report, VAWA-funded programs are often “driven by ideology and stakeholder interests rather than plausible theories and scientific evidence of fact.” (1)

The Violence Against Women Act is rooted in three ideological assumptions:

  1. A pervasive power differential exists between men and women.
  2. This power differential is the sole cause of domestic violence.
  3. Domestic violence against men is a minor or non-existent problem.

None of these assumptions are supported by science, government surveys, or common-sense:

  1. Women are far more likely than men to utilize coercive control tactics to control their partners, according to the CDC. Each year, 17.3 million men and 12.7 million women are victims of coercive control (2).
  • Major causes of domestic violence include substance abuse (3), mental health problems (4), and undergoing a separation or divorce (5).
  1. Each year there are 4.2 million male victims of physical domestic violence, compared to 3.5 million female victims (6).

Government surveys also reveal that the highest rates of abuse are found in same-sex female couples. Among lesbian couples, lifetime rates of abuse are 65.7%. In contrast, lifetime abuse rates among same-sex male couples are 40.0% (7). Adherence to the patriarchal “power and control” model has resulted in the marginalization and neglect of persons at highest risk.

VAWA’s long-standing reliance on gender ideology accounts for the law’s lack of effectiveness in reducing rates of domestic violence (8):

  1. “Between 2000 and 2010, rates of domestic violence actually fell less than the drop in the overall crime rate – at a time when VAWA was pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the criminal system.” — Leigh Goodmark, Professor, University of Maryland Law School
  2. “Many women’s advocates have come to question whether VAWA’s approach—which relies heavily on law enforcement to reduce the incidence of sexual assault and domestic violence—could be having adverse effects.” — Rebecca Burns, Award-winning investigative reporter
  3. “We have no evidence to date that VAWA has led to a decrease in the overall levels of violence against women.” — Angela Moore Parmley, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice

The Coalition to End Domestic Violence urges lawmakers to rethink and rework the Violence Against Women Act so it is based on scientific fact, not gender ideology.

Citations:

  1. https://www.nap.edu/catalog/10849/advancing-the-federal-research-agenda-on-violence-against-women
  2. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf , Tables 4.9 and 4.10.
  3. https://www.asam.org/Quality-Science/publications/magazine/read/article/2014/10/06/intimate-partner-violence-and-co-occurring-substance-abuse-addiction
  4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16731994/
  5. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ipv9310.pdf Table 1.
  6. CDC National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2015 Data Brief – Updated Release. 2018. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/2015data-brief508.pdf  Tables 9 and 11.
  7. NISVS: 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation. Tables 6 and 7.
  8. https://www.saveservices.org/2021/03/women-say-vawa-programs-lack-effectiveness/