by Theya McCown, Coordinator
Lane County Domestic Violence Council
http://www.womenspaceinc.org/
We have come a long way since the emergence of the Battered Women’s movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Grassroots organizing efforts that opened the first shelter doors and operated the first crisis response lines inside the homes of survivors themselves paved the way for dramatic improvements in systems response. The 1995 Violence Against Women Act gave birth to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, which has since awarded nearly $4 billion in grants to programs that work toward ending domestic violence.
Theya McCown
Thirty years ago, law enforcement response to domestic violence was virtually non-existent. Domestic violence was considered a family matter, and police officers were reluctant to respond. On the rare occasion law enforcement may have been compelled to intervene, laws to support such intervention simply did not exist. In the past three decades, nearly half the states in the Union adopted domestic violence mandatory arrest laws. Oregon was the first to act, doing so in 1977.
Regardless of legal and policy improvements, domestic violence remains among the most chronically underreported crimes in the United States. According to the Oregon Attorney General’s office, there were 55 domestic violence related homicides in Oregon last year. As other crime decreased, domestic violence experienced a dramatic spike. While this news is devastating, there may be redemption in the question it begs of us. What have we been missing? Why—after over 30 years of advocacy, lobbying, and more recently, collaboration between activists and officials—are more women dying at the hands of their intimate partners? (more…)
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At 85 percent, women make up the overwhelming majority of reported partner violence victims in the United States, and partner violence is the most common form of violence against women around the world (1.2). Although all communities experience partner violence, there are significant disparities in partner violence rates and individuals’ access to services in marginalized communities (3,4). To date, girls, ages 16–24 years, are most at risk for experiencing dating violence (5). Studies conducted with youth from diverse identity, socioeconomic, and geographic communities suggest dating abuse rates range from 25 percent to 50 percent (6). (more…)
