Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney, OMB Acting Director Jeffrey Zients, CEA Chairman Alan Krueger, NEC Director Gene Sperling, and Director of Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Muñoz on the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, 4/10/13

White House Launches Initiative To Keep Guns Out Of The Hands Of Domestic Abusers

Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new gun violence prevention initiative on Wednesday aimed at addressing issues of intimate partner violence. By helping local government officials better identify high-risk offenders and their potential victims, the new Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative hopes to prevent gun-related domestic homicides:

The program will help law enforcement and social service officials identify vulnerable women who may be in potentially fatal abusive relationships and connect them with law enforcement, prosecutors, court personnel and other service providers. As part of the initiative, the Justice Department will distribute a total of $2.3 million in one-year grants to 12 counties and municipalities. [...]

The vice president noted that from 2009 to 2012, 40 percent of mass shootings — those with four or more victims killed — started with the shooter targeting his girlfriend, wife or ex-wife, according to the White House. And Biden repeated a factoid — often noted by advocates for tighter gun control such as the Mayors Against Illegal Guns — that in states that require a background check for private handgun sales, 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by their intimate partners.

“The issue of domestic violence and reducing gun violence are connected,” Biden said. “That’s why the president and I believe that every person who buys a gun — every person — should have a criminal background check.”

The announcement comes the same week that legislation to expand background checks to almost all gun purchases is beginning to advance in Congress.

A similar initiative to make sure domestic abusers can’t easily access firearms is making its way through the Colorado legislature. Local law enforcement often mishandle sexual assault cases, but more training — through local VAWA grants as well as through these new initiatives — could help start to change that.

In recent months, gun issues and domestic violence issues have become particularly intertwined — but not in the same way that Biden and Holder are approaching them. On the other side of the issue, gun advocates have attempted to construe increased access to firearms, particularly concealed carry laws on college campuses, as a “women’s issue” because they claim guns are necessary to help protect women against sexual assault. But hidden guns won’t actually do anything to help address rape culture. In fact, as Biden pointed out, those weapons typically end up being used against victims of domestic abuse themselves. Abusers who have access to a gun are more than seven times more likely to kill their partners.

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Vice President Biden and Attorney General Holder Announce Grants to Help Reduce Domestic Violence Homicides

The White House

Office of the Vice President

12 Cities and Counties Receive Grants as Part of New Evidence-Based Prevention Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC – Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder today announced grants to twelve programs across the country to target the urgent need to reduce domestic violence homicides.  On average, three women a day die as a result of domestic violence.   Research shows that women whose partner threatens them with a gun or other weapon are 20 times more likely to subsequently be murdered than other abused women.  Moreover, children, coworkers, neighbors and police officers are also killed as a result of domestic violence. From 2009 to 2012, 40 percent of mass shootings—those with four or more victims killed—started with the shooter targeting their girlfriend, wife or ex-wife. 

In total, the Department of Justice will award $2.3 million to twelve sites across the country as part of the new Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative (DVHP Initiative).  The DVHP Initiative, created by the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), helps state and local jurisdictions reduce domestic violence homicides by effectively identifying potential victims and monitoring high-risk offenders.  The DVHP Initiative is modeled after programs in Massachusetts and Maryland, where the use of coordinated teams of law enforcement, prosecutors, health professionals and victims services significantly reduced the domestic violence homicide rate. 

“Every single day in America, three women die at the hands of their boyfriend, or their husband, or their ex-husband. Many of these women have been threatened or severely abused in the past. We know what risk factors put someone in greater danger of being killed by the person they love – and that also means we have the opportunity to step in and try to prevent these murders. That’s why these grants are so important. They’ll help stop violence before it turns deadly,” said Vice President Biden.

“Domestic violence is a devastating crime – and it claims far too many lives each and every day,” said Attorney General Holder.  “With today’s grant announcement, we are strengthening our ability to fight back more effectively – and aggressively – than ever before.  And we’re supporting the kinds of evidence-based domestic violence homicide prevention models that will allow us to reliably predict potentially lethal behavior, take steps to stop the escalation of violence and save lives.”

The Vice President and Attorney General announced the grant awards at the Montgomery County Executive Office Building in Rockville, MD, where they were joined by dozens of Maryland law enforcement officers who have been at the forefront of domestic violence homicide prevention efforts in that state.

“While the statistics seem overwhelming, we are not helpless in the face of these terrible crimes,” said Acting Director of the Office on Violence Against Women Bea Hanson. “We hope this evidence-based initiative to reduce domestic violence homicide is a breakthrough in preventing murders and serious injuries across the country.”

The new DVHP Initiative is based on an assessment tool that researchers have identified that can be used to reliably recognize women who may be in fatally abusive relationships.  Attempted strangulation, threats with weapons, sexual assault and obsessively jealous and controlling behavior are among the markers of particularly lethal abusers.  Once at-risk victims are identified, law enforcement, prosecutors, courts and service providers can take action to protect them and their families. 

Since passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994, annual rates of domestic violence have dropped by more than 60 percent, but more work remains to reduce the most serious of this violence.  OVW is partnering with the National Institute of Justice to rigorously monitor the implementation of the initiative and evaluate its outcomes. OVW is also working with national experts to provide technical assistance to the demonstration sites. 

The demonstration sites, each receiving one-year awards ranging from $100,658 to $200,000, are: Contra Costa County, CA; Miami-Dade County, FL; Palm Beach County, FL; Rockdale County, GA; Winnebago County, IL; City of Boston, MA; Borough of Brooklyn, NY; Westchester County, NY; Pitt County, NC; Cuyahoga County, OH; City of North Charleston, SC; and City of Rutland, VT.  After the 12-month assessment phase, up to six of the demonstration sites will be selected to continue a three-year implementation phase.

Click HERE for the fact sheet the Obama Administration’s commitment to reducing domestic violence homicides.

Click HERE for the fact sheet on the link between common sense efforts to reduce gun violence and preventing domestic violence homicides.

Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling outlines the economic case for a fair, effective and common-sense immigration system that strengthens our economy and the middle class.

The First Lady met today with the Business Roundtable to talk about Joining Forces, her initiative that supports veterans and military families.

As part of our Sunshine Week series, Macon Phillips discusses We the People.

view all related blog posts

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Patrick Stewart’s Domestic Violence Campaign And Geek Feminism

I’m glad to see Sir Patrick Stewart calling on men to prevent violence against women, particularly given the vicious harassment campaign against feminist commenter Zerlina Maxwell that commenced after she dared to suggest that maybe we should teach rape prevention to men rather than asking women to take all sorts of precautions that might or might not work to guard themselves against assault. In an appearance on Friday:

The 72-year-old British-born actor, best known for his roles in “X-Men” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” served as host for the launch of “Ring the Bell,” a global campaign calling on 1 million men to make 1 million “concrete, actionable promises” to end violence against women.

“Violence against women is the single greatest human rights violation of our generation,” Stewart said.

“This is a call to action—not an action that will make things better in six months’ time or a year’s time,” he continued, “but action that might save someone’s life and someone’s future this afternoon, tonight, tomorrow morning.”

First, I think it’s great to see a genre-fiction icon like Stewart speaking out on violence against women, and speaking from a place of personal experience. That’s something women are often asked to do to personalize women’s issues, but that also gets them dismissed as subjective or overstating problems. Hearing that domestic violence affects men as well is powerful testimony, and takes some of the weight off women to repeat their stories, and to make the argument that such violence may be directed at women, but that doesn’t mean that its effects are confined to people who are physically damaged. To have Stewart define masculinity as solidarity with women strikes me as a useful thing in the geek community, though I think it’s definitely worth talking about concrete action that respects women’s agency, rather than setting up domestic violence survivors as simply another version of the Damsel In Distress.

And I think it’s important to talk about what concrete steps can look like for men who don’t conceive of themselves as violent (or in the conversation Maxwell started, as potential rapists), or who don’t have direct personal contact with domestic violence right now. How do men start and frame effective conversations with other men, whether it’s about the presentation of women’s issues and violence in the real world, or about content they’re consuming together that may be casually violent against women, or may employ violence against women and sexual assault as a lazy way of generating stakes? What are good ways to teach consent-seeking as that push back against pick-up artist techniques and attitudes, some of the only guides to being more socially engaged that some men in the geek community ever encounter (a point made valuably, and pushed back against, by the wonderful Dr. NerdLove, who I had the privilege to meet up with here in Austin)? Being committed to not being personally violent against women in a theoretical way is a wonderful thing, and one I’m glad to see men embrace, but it’s the kind of mentality that can also make men think that they’re the kind of people who could never possibly be violent towards women, which contributes to the inability to see one’s own bad acts. Trying to reduce a culture of violence, and to promote the idea that violence against women ought to be something that makes men feel uncomfortable for their own sakes, is something rather different.

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GOP Congresswoman: I Opposed Domestic Violence Bill Because It Protected Too Many Groups

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday openly admitted that she opposed the latest reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) because it included protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims of domestic violence.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Blackburn pointed out that the latest iteration of the law protects “different groups” and thus dilutes funding for straight, non-Native American women with the proper documentation:

When you start to make this about other things it becomes an “against violence act” and not a targeted focus act… I didn’t like the way it was expanded to include other different groups. What you need is something that is focused specifically to help the shelters and to help out law enforcement, who is trying to work with the crimes that have been committed against women and helping them to stand up.

Watch it:

Domestic violence is domestic violence, period. And there is no way to justify Blackburn’s suggestion that some victims of this violence are more deserving than others. The reauthorized VAWA allows programs targeting LGBT victims of domestic violence to compete on equal footing for grant money with other groups serving underserved populations, and it ensures that LGBT victims will not be turned away from shelters and other services because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. These victims of violence deserve the same protections as anyone else caught in domestic abuse.

Additionally, the reauthorized VAWA includes provisions to prevent serial rapists and similar abusers from preying on Native American women. If Blackburn considers Native American women a “different group,” then it’s one she should be most concerned about: Three out of every five Native American women has been assaulted by an intimate partner.

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Student Murdered By Stalker Inspires Colorado Bill To Keep Guns Away From Domestic Abusers

Inspired by a student who was murdered by her stalker, a Colorado lawmaker has introduced a bill banning gun possession by anyone who has been convicted of domestic violence or has been the subject of a restraining order.

Senate Bill 197 is the first of four gun violence prevention measures being considered in Colorado’s Senate Judiciary Committee today. The bill would also require an individual with a restraining order against them to relinquish any guns in their possession within 24 hours. State Sen. Evie Hudak (D-CO), the legislation’s sponsor, was a teacher at the school where the student was shot after filing a restraining order against her killer:

Hudak said the student who was killed at the private business college where she was teaching had taken out a restraining order against her stalker, and “we were all told to keep an eye on her.”

“She appeared to have dropped out of school,” Hudak said. “A few weeks later they found her body.”

This unnamed student is hardly an unusual case. American women are at a higher risk to be homicide victims than women in any other high-income country. Over 90 percent of female homicide victims are killed by someone they know, and 76 percent of these victims were stalked before their deaths. Guns are the most common weapon used in these murders.

Pro-gun advocates have tried to frame gun rights as an issue of women’s safety, claiming that gun-free zones disarm women who need to protect themselves from sexual assault. Since an estimated two-thirds of sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knows, a gun would probably not help a woman defend herself.

In reality, women are much more likely to be on the other end of the barrel. Nearly 6 times more women were shot by a husband, boyfriend or ex than by a male stranger in 2010. Purchasing a handgun, according to some analyses, provides no protection against homicide and actually increases the risk of being murdered by a partner. Abusers who have access to firearms are over 7 times more likely to kill their partners. Even women who simply live in states with higher gun ownership are 4.9 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than women who live in lower gun ownership rates.

According to SB 197, Colorado is home to 41,244 domestic violence victims. The number of victims in the state rose dramatically by 11.6 percent between 2011 and 2012, compared to the 3.6 percent the year before.

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Three Charts Reminding The GOP That Domestic Spending Is Already Headed Toward Historic Lows

Republicans like to portray President Obama as a big government spender, despite the fact that government spending under Obama has grown at its slowest pace since the Eisenhower administration. The GOP is also trying to pretend the spending cuts that Obama has signed into law over the last two years simply didn’t happen.

In fact, under its current trajectory, non-defense discretionary spending — everything from education to food safety to transportation to housing to veterans’ benefits — will hit historic lows in the next decade, as Center for American Progress Director of Tax and Budget Policy Michael Linden showed in these charts:

If the so-called “sequester” comes into force in March, which House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) says it will, domestic spending will fall even more. “Instead of totaling 3.2 percent of GDP in 2017, nondefense discretionary spending would total less than 3 percent of GDP and would be on its way down to 2.6 percent by 2022. This is less than two-thirds of what was previously its lowest level,” Linden wrote.

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Ensuring that LGBT Victims of Domestic Violence Can Access Critically Needed Services and Protections

Posted by Lynn Rosenthal, Tonya Robinson on May 15, 2012 at 11:06 AM EDT

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approved legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994, but failed to include critical provisions that would ensure that all victims of domestic violence can access vital services and protections.  Victims are victims, and, if you have been battered, stalked or otherwise threatened with violence, you should not be turned away by a shelter or denied the assistance you need merely because the aggressor is the same sex as you or because you are transgender.  Yet, the legislation approved by the House Judiciary Committee and being considered this week on the House floor would allow just that.

The guiding principle behind VAWA and each of its subsequent reauthorizations has been an unyielding commitment to the notion that no sexual assault or domestic violence victim should be beaten, hurt or killed because they could not access the support, assistance and protection that they need.  In enacting VAWA in 1994, Congress acknowledged that the criminal justice system chronically failed to respond to the crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, too often blaming victims and refusing to hold offenders accountable as violent criminals.  In reauthorizing VAWA in 2000, Congress included new VAWA programs and provisions to help particularly vulnerable populations, including younger victims, immigrant victims, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.  In the 2005 reauthorization, Congress once again strengthened the Act to improve the health care response to domestic violence, to include a new focus on prevention, and to expand protections for children exposed to violence. 

This year, the VAWA reauthorization bill passed by the Senate in April would remove barriers faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) victims, whose needs often are overlooked by law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and victim service providers. LGBT victims experience domestic violence at roughly the same rate as the general population.  Nonetheless, recent surveys show that LGBT victims frequently are turned away when attempting to access services. For example, according to a 2010 survey by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 45% of LGBT victims were denied services when they sought help from a domestic violence shelter, and nearly 55% were denied protection orders. 

Without LGBT-specific training, criminal justice personnel often underestimate the physical danger involved in same-sex relationships or fail to identify a primary aggressor and instead arrest both victim and perpetrator.  Even well-intentioned service providers may generate outreach materials that do not accurately or fully reflect the experience of LGBT victims, and thus inadvertently discourage individuals who have suffered abuse from seeking needed care.  In all these cases, bias or a lack of understanding contributes to an environment where the needs of LGBT victims are underserved.

The Senate bill would improve VAWA further, authorizing States and service providers to ensure that VAWA protections extend to all victims - including LGBT victims - of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.  The Senate bill includes three provisions that would help LGBT victims access VAWA-funded services. 

First, the Senate bill would add a LGBT-focused purpose area to the STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant program, the largest VAWA program and the one that supports law enforcement, prosecution, court and victim service activities in every State.  This new purpose area would authorize States, at their discretion, to fund projects that focus specifically on improving responses to male and female victims of domestic and sexual violence whose ability to access traditional services is affected by their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Second, the Senate bill would amend the Act’s definition of “underserved population” to recognize that LGBT victims face barriers to service.  Not only does this improvement send an important message to those who administer and receive VAWA funding, but it will ensure that organizations serving this community can obtain funding from a new grant program that focuses on underserved populations. 

Third, the Senate bill would protect LGBT victims from discrimination by prohibiting VAWA grantees from denying LGBT victims access to programs on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Plainly put, this provision would ensure that all victims of domestic violence are able to access life-saving services.  In contrast, the VAWA reauthorization bill reported out of the House Judiciary Committee, which is being advanced by House Republican leadership, excludes these critical protections for LGBT victims.

Opponents claim that the Senate bill’s LGBT provisions are a solution looking for a problem.  That is just not true.  Domestic and sexual violence against LGBT individuals is an unfortunate reality, as is violence against non-LGBT individuals – and we shouldn’t allow any victim of such abuse to go unprotected.

Lynn Rosenthal is the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women.  Tonya Robinson is the Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy.

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