Americans Call for Major Reforms to Violence Against Women Act

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Stewart: 513-479-3335

Americans Call for Major Reforms to Violence Against Women Act

WASHINGTON / February 24, 2021 – A recent national survey commissioned by the Coalition to End Domestic Violence and conducted by YouGov reveals a majority of Americans want major changes to be made to the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The law is currently up for reauthorization by Congress. For all five topics of inquiry, men and women expressed similar levels of support for reform.

The survey consists of five questions addressing key areas of concern. Break-downs by sex are shown in parenthesis:

Mental Health Focus

56% of Americans believe “VAWA should create a system in which mental health services are used first, and criminal justice approaches reserved for the more severe or repeated cases of domestic violence” (Males: 55%; Females: 57%)
Only 35% wanted VAWA to continue its current focus to “increase the number of arrests, prosecutions, and imprisonments” (Males: 33%; Females: 37%)

False Allegations

54% of Americans believe “VAWA should mandate the prosecution of persons who knowingly make false allegations” (Males: 54%; Females: 54%)
An additional 32% want VAWA to “tighten up definitions and strengthen standards of proof to discourage false allegations” (Males: 31%; Females: 33%)

Sex Discrimination

50% of persons said VAWA should “remove all sex-discriminatory language and mandate the equitable treatment of male and female victims” (Males: 51%; Females: 49%)
An additional 29% favor changing the name of the law to sex-neutral wording such as the “Violence Against Persons Act” (Males: 27%; Females: 31%)

Financial Waste and Fraud

45% of Americans believe that the number of financial audits of VAWA grantees should be increased (Males: 46%; Females: 44%)
An additional 41% favor a three-year funding ban on organizations that are generally non-compliant with auditing requirements. (Males: 40%; Females: 42%)

Implementation of Reforms

55% of respondents want to make changes to the existing VAWA law to address these concerns (Males: 51%; Females: 59%)
Only 22% are calling for lawmakers to “Start from scratch to draft a completely new domestic violence law” (Males: 23%; Females: 21%)

This survey is believed to be the first ever undertaken on this topic. The 2,458 survey respondents’ data were weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population ages 18+. Fieldwork was conducted December 22-29, 2020. The survey was carried out online. The survey was conducted using an online interview administered to members of the YouGov panel of persons who agreed to participate.

The wording of the survey questions and results, including break-downs by age, geographical region, race, education, marital status, parental status, income, political party, and political viewpoint are available online (1).

To date, 102 leading organizations have issued calls to institute major reforms to VAWA (2). These reforms include:

End over-criminalization
Stop false allegations
Provide services to male victims of domestic violence
Assure a transparent legislative drafting process
Other concerns

Last year 46 state domestic violence/sexual assault coalitions endorsed a “Moment of Truth” statement that expressed regret for the movement’s long-standing focus on “increased policing, prosecution, and imprisonment as the primary solution to gender-based violence.” The statement called for greater emphasis on restorative justice approaches. (3)

The Coalition to End Domestic Violence urges federal and state lawmakers to implement the needed changes to the Violence Against Women Act.

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