New VAWA Law Will Worsen Problem of False Allegations and Wrongful Convictions. Black Men at Greatest Risk.

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

New VAWA Law Will Worsen Problem of False Allegations and Wrongful Convictions. Black Men at Greatest Risk.

WASHINGTON / April 11, 2022 – According to a YouGov survey, 20.4 million Americans have been falsely accused of sexual assault, domestic violence, or child abuse (1). And Black men are at higher risk of being wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and other crimes (2).

One such man was William Virgil, who was falsely accused and wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in 1988 and sentenced to 70 years in prison (3). His conviction partly rested on the testimony of a jailhouse informant who later admitted the police provided him with “cheat sheets” so his testimony would comport with the police version. In addition, police were investigating a separate suspect in connection with the crime. These facts were not disclosed to defense attorneys (4).

False allegations and wrongful convictions are likely to become more frequent as a result of provisions in the federal Violence Against Women Act (5), which addresses sexual assault and domestic violence, and was reauthorized on March 16.

First, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) creates a social narrative that serves to bias investigators and prosecutors against men. According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year 4.2 million men and 3.5 million women are victims of physical domestic violence (6). But the VAWA authors have never acknowledged the fact that most victims of domestic violence are male (7).

Second, the new VAWA bill dramatically expands the definition of domestic violence to include “coercive control” (Section 2). Coercive control is defined as “behavior committed, enabled, or solicited to gain or maintain power and control over a victim, including verbal, psychological, economic, or technological abuse.” But the VAWA bill never defines what verbal and psychological abuse is, opening the possibility that persons could be accused of “domestic violence” for engaging in nagging or being involved in a marital spat (8).

Third, VAWA explicitly encourages arrests, even for minor, first-time cases, and when constitutional ”probable cause” requirements are not met (Section 102). Although men are more likely to be victims of partner abuse, inexplicably, four out of five arrests of persons for partner abuse are of men (9). An arrest triggers the workings of the rest of the criminal system, often leading to a conviction.

Fourth, the VAWA law promotes the use of so-called “trauma-informed, victim-centered” law enforcement policies (Section 205). In practice, “trauma-informed” means the investigator should discount inconsistencies in the complainant’s testimony and treat them as evidence of the trauma that he or she putatively experienced, a stance that is not supported by research (10). And “victim-centered” means law enforcement should accord greater credibility to the accuser, not the accused, an approach that vitiates investigative impartiality and the presumption of innocence.

William Virgil was exonerated on January 6, 2017, as a result of the persistent efforts of the Kentucky Innocence Project (3). Virgil died five years later.

The Coalition to End Domestic Violence urges persons to work to curtail the implementation of VAWA policies that are biased, unethical, and unconstitutional.

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