Leslie Tou, MPH
Population Health Service Fellow, 2nd Year
Wisconsin Department of Health Services
UW-Madison Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families
Madison, Wi
I’m
angry. Honestly, we- as public health
professionals, as citizens, and as human beings- should all be angry.
Lately,
it seems like we actually need a reminder that women still experience violence
at an alarmingly high rate. Between Russia decriminalizing domestic violence and Trump’s
new budget threatening to completely eliminate all Violence Against Women Act
(VAWA) grant programs, you could be forgiven for thinking maybe it’s not an
issue anymore.
But
the numbers don’t lie. 1 in 3 women
and girls across the globe experience gender-based violence[*] (1). That is over 30% of our world’s
women and girls who will experience sexual, physical
and other abuse in their lifetimes. Here
in the United States, more than 1 in 3 women
have experienced “rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate
partner in their lifetime” with 1 in 4 experiencing severe intimate partner
violence. And nearly 45% of
all American women (almost 1 in 2) have experienced sexual coercion,
unwanted sexual contact and other unwanted sexual experiences at some point in
their lives (2). What’s
heartbreaking is that this already too-high number goes up for lesbians (46.4%) and bisexual women (a staggering 74.9%) (3). And keep in
mind that rape and sexual violence are some of the most underreported numbers we have (4).
In
Wisconsin alone, there were 5,609 injury
hospitalizations and ER visits for women 15-44 because of intentional assault
in 2014. In that same year, in one
single day, Wisconsin domestic violence programs “provided services to 1,949
victims and had 367 requests for services that went unmet due to lack of
resources” (5).
In
short: violence against women is not only still an issue but happening to a
distressingly large percentage of American women. (I also want to take a quick moment to
recognize that sexual and gender-based violence is not exclusive to women. This affects men as well and especially
affects the LGBT+ and gender nonconforming communities. The fact that I chose to focus on women in
this blog is not meant to detract from the realities of violence to these
populations.)
So,
how does the fact that almost half of all American women will experience some
form of sexual violence victimization in their lifetime lead to the decision to
eliminate all VAWA grant funds? Funds
that Kim Gandy (President of the National Network to End Domestic Violence)
said “is truly the foundation of our nation’s response to domestic and sexual
violence, stalking and dating violence” (6)?
But
this issue is about more than just numbers, shocking though they may be. Just volunteer your time at any local domestic
violence shelter, sexual assault agency, or any other organizations that work
with survivors[†]. Words cannot do justice to the experience of
listening to their stories of pain and fear and the lifelong ramifications
(higher levels of depression, suicide attempts, anxiety, PTSD, as well as
poorer physical health) that come with their experiences of violence, as well
as their successes in their personal journeys of healing (7). These women have been through so much and have fought
so hard. They shouldn’t have to do it
alone. They should have spaces like DAIS or the Rape
Crisis Center to go
to for medical help, legal help, for shelter, and for empathy and support from
those who understand.
Then
there’s the economics. The CDC estimates
that intimate partner violence costs us $8.3 billion dollars a year (8). Each rape costs
approximately $151,423 (9). Some of the
best research we have identifies rape as our country’s most costly crime, at an
annual cost of $127 billion (this is excluding child sexual abuse) (10). Yet we may be
losing one of the only sources of federal funding that works to prevent these
crimes- the 25 Office of VAW grants. These
grants provide evidence-based direct services, intervention and assistance for
victims of sexual assault as well as training and prevention programs. They cover everything from training law enforcement
agencies to be more effective, trauma-informed responders, assisting with
transitional housing for survivors, direct services to marginalized and
underserved populations, providing legal assistance to survivors, and
specifically supporting children, youth and elders experiencing violence and sexual
assault (11). Without the
critical, life-saving work of VAW grants, what is going to happen to the 74
million women who have or will experience some sort of sexual violence in their
lifetimes (2)? We NEED
these services.
Many
others have written about this (like this one, this one, or this one or even this one). But I truly believe this is an
issue worth elevating at every opportunity.
We need everyone to understand that so many women suffer in the United
States but our current government wants to completely eliminate a huge source
of federal funding.
Can
we all at least agree that sexual assault and intimate partner violence (as two
examples) remain a serious problem in the US?
If the answer is yes, why would we eliminate the funding? In what world is that good math? In what world is that the humane choice? So YES.
I’m angry. And you should be too.
1. Ellsberg
M, Arango DJ, Morton M, et al. Prevention of violence against women and girls:
what does the evidence say? Lancet (London, England). 2015; 385(9977):1555-66.
doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(14)61703-7
2. Black MC, Basile, K.C., Breiding,
M.J., Smith, S.G., Walters, M.L., Merrick, M.T., Chen, J., & Stevens, M.R.
The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary
Report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control2011.
3. Center NSVR. Statistics About Sexual
Violence2015.
4. Thomas E. Rape Is Grossly
Underreported in the U.S., Study Finds. In: The Huffington Post. 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/21/rape-study-report-america-us_n_4310765.html.
Accessed February 23 2017.
5. Violence NCAD. Domestic Violence
National Statistics. In: NCADV, editor.2015. p. 2.
6. Gandy K. Intimate Partner Violence
Report Proves VAWA Works. In: Post TH, editor. The Blog. The Huffington
Post2012.
7. Carlson
BE, Mcnutt L-A, Choi DY, et al. Intimate Partner Abuse and Mental Health
The
Role of Social Support and Other Protective Factors. Violence Against Women. 2002;
8(6):720-45.
8. Prevention CfDCa. Intimate Partner
Violence: Consequences. Atlanta, GA. 2015. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/consequences.html.
Accessed February 23 2017.
9. DeLisi M, Kosloski A, Sween M, et
al. Murder by numbers: monetary costs imposed by a sample of homicide
offenders. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology. 2010;
21(4):501-13.
10. Miller TR, Cohen MA, Wiersema B.
Victim Costs and Consequences: A New Look. In: Justice UDo, editor.: Office of
Justice Programs; 1996. p. 35.
11. Justice
TUSDo. Grant Programs. United States DOJ. 2017. https://www.justice.gov/ovw/grant-programs.
Accessed Feburary 23 2017.
[*] As
defined by the UN: gender-based violence is “physical, sexual or psychological
harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”
[†] But really, you should probably look
into volunteering because they are going to need all the help they can get if
their programs are defunded.
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