PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Rebecca Stewart
Telephone: 513-479-3335
Email: info@EndToDV.org
DOJ Has Failed to Act in Good Faith on Congressional Anti-Discrimination Mandate: Report
WASHINGTON / December 22, 2021 – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has failed to take necessary steps to implement measures to end discriminatory practices against male victims of domestic violence, according to a report recently issued by the Coalition to End Domestic Violence (CEDV). Titled The Negation of Justice at the U.S. Department of Justice (1), the report also documents how the DOJ Office of Community Oriented Policing has badly misrepresented the issue of sex bias among police officers.
Discrimination against men is a long-standing problem. Despite repeated congressional mandates designed to ban sex discrimination by DOJ-funded programs, the Department of Justice continues to advertise programs with overly discriminatory names, such the “STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program” and “Training and Services to End Violence Against Women with Disabilities Grant Program.” (2)
As a result, the DOJ Biennial Report to Congress reveals large disparities in the provision of domestic violence services to male victims:
- Legal Assistance: 6% male, 94% female (Page 162)
- Rural Assistance: 10% male, 90% female (Page 174)
- Sexual Assault Services: 4% male, 96% female (Page 184)
- Transitional Housing: 1% male, 99% female (Page 204)
- Indian Tribal Governments: 5% male, 95% female (Page 222)
- Tribal Sexual Assault: 14% male, 86% female (Page 237)
- Services to Underserved Populations: 14% male, 86% female (Page 248)
The CEDV report reaches this conclusion:
“Most troubling is the fact that the Office of Violence Against Women has not instituted audits of VAWA grantees to assure compliance with sex-discrimination mandates, or suspended funding from agencies that engage in sex discrimination. We conclude the DOJ Office of Violence Against Women has not acted in good faith to implement the Congressional mandates contained in the 2005 or 2013 VAWA reauthorizations to assist ‘all’ victims of domestic violence.”
A previous CEDV report documented numerous domestic violence misrepresentations promoted by the DOJ in the past (4). These falsehoods had the effect of minimizing the extent of domestic violence against men and discouraging the provision of services to them. Attorney General Merrick Garland needs to take decisive and prompt action to comply with the constitutional requirement that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
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