Ending Violence Against Women

There are few subjects more personal and urgent than the issue of violence against women and that is why it is one of NOW’s six core issues. Our unique approach emphasizes the complexity of the issue and its interrelated factors, including domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, violence against abortion clinics and hate crimes across the lines of gender, sexuality and race.   

NOW recognizes that violence against women is perpetuated through gender bias in the judicial system and systems of economic oppression and that we must address these deeply seeded structural problems. 

One of the most essential tools in advocating for this mission is the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), enacted on September 13, 1994. In the years leading up to that historic day, NOW and the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (NOW LDEF) led a long and crucially important campaign to victory.  After passage, we led another uphill battle to get initial VAWA funding released. And ever since we’ve brought that same feminist energy and activism to reauthorize and improve VAWA, to make sure that it is serving everyone who has faced violence.   

March 2022 finally saw the most recent VAWA reauthorization signed into law by President Joe Biden, the author of the original VAWA. When the U.S. Senate failed to reauthorize VAWA in 2019, NOW members began a pressure campaign that could not be, and we won.    

That commitment, and all the work done by allies and activists, has strengthened VAWA to expand protections for women from domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking to include additional services for tribal members, transgender, and underserved communities. Now, more funding will go to rape prevention and education efforts, as well as training for law enforcement and the judicial system.     

While NOW applauds this VAWA reauthorization, we know that it is only the beginning of our efforts.  Congress must follow with a renewed commitment to childcare, healthcare and other vital investments in our lives and future that help survivors and all families to live and thrive.   

And we must make sure that VAWA evolves even more to ensure that there are robust and culturally relevant protections for all communities that need them. The Act comes up for renewal every five years, and NOW activists and allies continue to work on building on the existing protections and programs and expanding protections to make sure that all communities are included, particularly Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, undocumented women, and the LGBTQIA+ community. NOW will activate the power of our grassroots and continue advocating until we see these priorities come to fruition once and for all.

 SPAC

Christian F. Nunes, President of National NOW at Reauthorization of VAWA Action, 2022. 

What is The Violence Against Women Act? 

The original 1994 version of VAWA, authored by then-Senator Joseph R. Biden, was the first federal legislation acknowledging domestic violence and sexual assault as crimes. It provided federal resources to fund and promote community-coordinated responses to combating violence against women. 

The Act comes up for renewal every five years, and during that time NOW activists and allies work to build on the existing protections and programs that VAWA created, and also to expand and enhance protections to make sure that all communities are included, particularly Black, Indigenous, Communities of color, undocumented women and the LGBTQIA+ community.

VAWA recipients deliver lifesaving direct services to victims and their families and hold offenders accountable through the criminal justice system. VAWA grantees serve hundreds of thousands of victims annually, including:

• Providing critical services like hotlines and victim advocates, 
• Temporary housing for victims and their children, and 
• Legal assistance that improves survivors’ access to and experience with court procedures like custody arrangements and protection orders. 

“I think there is a socialization that goes where violence becomes acceptable. You have to change that and say, ‘No, that’s not acceptable, rape is not acceptable and neither is any form of violence against women. We must not be ambiguous about violence. The greatest war is fought inside our own hearts, a war of anger and resentment and greed. So we start within ourselves and then with our families and our communities.”
– Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate

The Office of Violence Against Women 

The Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) assumes the day-to-day work of implementing VAWA, including implementing formula grant programs and discretionary grant programs. These programs fund victim services, legal assistance, law enforcement, prosecution services, and court practices. They also provide training and technical assistance to those working in the field.  

VAWA addresses domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking through the development of coordinated community care among law enforcement, prosecutors, victim services, and attorneys. Among other provisions, VAWA: 

• It makes domestic violence a federal crime when state lines are crossed.  
• Provides grants to states for programs that prevent violence against women or provide services for victims of violence.  
• Provides support for work with tribes and tribal organizations to end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking against Native American women.  
• Doubles federal penalties for repeat sex offenders.19  

Since the passage of VAWA in 1994, every state has enacted laws making stalking a crime and each state strengthened criminal rape statutes. 

“Women employed in every industry and sector, including agriculture and other low-paid positions, have historically confronted wide-spread workplace sexual violence. It is more important than ever before that we unite to find solutions to ensure that all women can work with dignity and without fear of violence against them.”  
– Mónica Ramírez, President of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas. 

Why is VAWA Important to Women? 

On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, totaling more than 12 million people over the course of a year.  

And in just one day more than 67,000 victims of domestic violence sought services from domestic violence programs and shelters in the U.S. and its territories.   

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed like never before how domestic violence impacts women’s day-to-day lives. With quarantine levels high, hospitals across the country saw a surge in emergency care cases resulting from intimate partner violence (IPV).  

• 1 in 4 women are victims of intimate partner violence, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.   
• It is estimated that 37.5 percent of Native women have experienced IPV in their lifetime, with 29.1 percent of Black women, 23.4 percent of Latinas, and 41-60 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander women reporting the same. Black and Native women are at the greatest risk for IPV related homicide. 
• There are 438 gun-related domestic violence fatalities per year, 10 million people per year are physically abused by an intimate partner, 20,000 calls each day are made to domestic violence hotlines, and 20 percent of women in the United States have been raped. Source: National Coalition to End Domestic Violence. 
• Between VAWA’s implementation in 1994 and 2011, serious victimization by an intimate partner declined by 72%. 

Before VAWA 

Prior to VAWA, more than 60 percent of rape reports did not result in arrests and a rape case was more than twice as likely to be dismissed as a murder case and nearly 40 percent more likely to be dismissed than a robbery case.  Tragically, less than half of the individuals arrested for rape were convicted of that offense and even among those convicted, more than half served an average of only 1 year or less behind bars. 

The passage of VAWA created a call to action and sent a strong statement that ending violence against women is a national priority. This crisis deserves the weight of the federal government’s leadership and financial resources. 

Incidents of sexual assault and domestic violence have seen significant declines since VAWA took effect, and with each reauthorization of the bill efforts to increase access to services, healing, and justice for survivors have improved.  

According to a 2014 Journal of Women’s Health Study, the rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) against females declined 53% between 1993 and 2008, from 9.4 victimizations per 1,000 females aged 12 years or older to 4.3 victimizations per 1,000, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Additionally, there was a 51% increase in reporting of IPV after mandatory arrest laws of VAWA went into effect, and there was 63% decrease in nonfatal violence and 24% decrease in fatal violence. 

Unfortunately, in recent years the numbers have stopped declining, and there was a devastating increase in intimate partner violence brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the most recent 2022 reauthorization funding for many of VAWA’s flagship programs has remained stagnant over the past decade, likely curbing its impact. Advocates hope that with the recent reauthorization and improvements we will again see significant declines in rates of violence against women and a renewed focus on prevention as well as justice for victims. 

2022 Reauthorization Highlights

Christian F. Nunes, President of National NOW with President Biden, at Reauthorization of VAWA Action, 2022.

The most recent VAWA reauthorization includes numerous reforms that help advocates to provide services to victims of violence and enhance prevention efforts. The reauthorization: 

1. Enhances the definition of domestic violence, recognizing verbal, psychological, economic, and technological abuse. 
2. Defines restorative justice and creates a new community-based program to support training and programs to provide non-carceral accountability for survivors. 
3. Carries provisions responsive to incarcerated women 
4. Provides funds for community-specific services for LGBTQIA+ victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. 
5. Increases funding authorization across underserved populations. 
6. Mandates a study on barriers to survivor’s economic access.  
7. Provides tools to ensure adjudicated abusers who are prohibited from possessing firearms do not acquire new ones. 
8. Expand legal assistance access.  
9. Expands prevention programs on college campuses, including work with campus health centers. 
10. Creates a pilot project to allow some Alaska Native Villages to exercise special criminal jurisdiction over certain crimes. 
11. Enhances implementation, compliance, and enforcement of VAWA’s housing protections. 

Additional resource pages of information about VAWA

• NOW’s Historical Advocacy for VAWA 
• Native American Women and VAWA 

Title IX

The Impact of Title IX on Violence Against Women 

NOW was also one of the chief advocates for passage of the Title IX of the Education Act Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination by any educational institution that receives federal funding. This important civil rights law assures that equal opportunity is to be provided for women and men, boys and girls, in both academics and athletics.  

Title IX has also been a tool to push back against the insidious threats of sexual harassment and assault on college campuses nationwide. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration adopted a regulation that greatly undermined those protections. NOW and our allies pushed back and worked with the Biden-Harris administration and members of Congress to reverse this dangerous precedent.   

Title IX is especially crucial for students of color, who face higher rates of sexual harassment and violence. Women in general, and Black women in particular, are blamed, punished, and shamed for filing claims based on racist and sexist discrimination. And the gutting of Title IX threatens to make the situation worse. 

What is needed to protect and expand Title IX? 

Read more about our work on Title IX here.  

How Can We Take Action on VAWA? 

At NOW, we take on the tough challenges and never shrink from the difficult challenges ahead of us.  We propose constructive solutions to difficult problems, and we build coalitions that mobilize the best talents and most productive energy of our grassroots. And it is because of that grassroots activism we have been at the forefront of so many change-making moments, including the passage of VAWA and its subsequent reauthorizations. We know that our work is far from done. Until every woman is free from violence we will keep marching, keep organizing, and keep speaking out to create lasting change. Here’s how you can join us to make a difference.

• Take Action Checklist

Additional VAWA Resources 

 Emergency Assistance 

• National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-7233, https://www.thehotline.org/ 
  For any victims and survivors who need support, the NDVH is there for you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-799-7233 for TTY, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 22522. 
   
• En Español: Línea directa nacional de violencia doméstica, 1-800-799-7233, https://www.thehotline.org/ para cualquier víctima y sobreviviente que necesite apoyo, se puede comunicar 24 horas del día. Llame al 1-800-799-7233 o al 1-800-799-7233 para TTY, o si no puede hablar de manera segura, puede iniciar sesión en thehotline.org o enviar la palabra LOVEIS por mensaje de texto al 22522. Para información en español, visita la página “En Español. 
   
• National Sexual Assault Hotline, 1-800-656-4673, https://www.rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-telephone-hotline.  Anyone affected by sexual assault, whether it happened to you or someone you care about, can find support on the National Sexual Assault Hotline. You can also visit online.rainn.org to receive support via confidential online chat. 
   
• National Center for Victims of Crime’s Stalking Resource Center. 
   
• Many states have their own domestic violence and sexual assault hotlines with helpful information offered in a number of languages. You can reach their websites by entering the name of your state + domestic violence hotline or sexual assault hotline into search engines like Google. Guidance to law enforcement assistance, shelters, counseling and other important services are provided. 

Further Information on VAWA  

• National Network to End Domestic Violence Policy Issues 
• White House Fact Sheet: 2022 VAWA Reauthorization 
• The Effectiveness of VAWA 
• HUD’s VAWA Resources for MultiFamily Assisted Housing 
• American Bar Association VAWA Toolkit 
• Legal Momentum’s VAWA History 

Title IX Resources 

• Hands off IX: Title IX Under Trump   
• The Title IX Rule is in Effect–– Now What?  
• Title IX’s Unfulfilled Promise for Black Women  

MMIW Resources:  

• Human Trafficking in Indian Country  
• The Oil Industry and MMIWs  
• National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Day