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Understanding, preventing, and responding to sexual assault and intimate partner violence has been my life’s work. Beginning as a volunteer and then a paid position during my early 20s, I worked to advocate for women at a domestic violence shelter and rape crisis hotline. My colleagues and I were scrambling to meet their needs, and I often wondered whether what we were doing was actually helping. Then the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed in 1994, fundamentally altering the landscape for responding to gender-based violence. I turned to research in graduate school and for the greater part of my career since. I have been examining the consequences of victimization, community responses to sexual assault and intimate partner violence, and responses to sexual victimization in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities — all with the goal of providing actionable, data-driven guidance to policymakers and practitioners.
As executive science advisor at the National Institute of Justice, I have been able to continue to champion research and evaluation on these issues by supporting NIJ’s program, as well as closely collaborating with our colleagues in the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). Recently, at NIJ’s 2024 National Research Conference, I was able to open and moderate the final plenary session which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the passage of VAWA in 1994 and its four reauthorizations — each of which has addressed new areas of concern and instituted new programs.
I was honored to be part of the plenary panel which included people who have dedicated their lives to preventing and addressing gender-based violence and its repercussions. Dr. Angela Moore, senior science advisor at NIJ, kicked off the conversation presenting context for VAWA and its reauthorizations and impact. Dr. Moore is one of the leading NIJ voices who (along with Dr. Tina Crossland) helped implement and cultivate this program of research.
We then had the pleasure of hearing from three pillars of the field, each who have been integral to the movement. Dir. Rosie Hidalgo, who was Director of the Office on Violence Against Women, joined OVW after serving the Biden-Harris administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor on Gender-Based Violence at the White House Gender Policy council. Dir. Kris Rose was the Director of the Office for Victims of Crime after she was appointed to serve on the Department of Defense’s Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. She also held several leadership roles throughout OVC, OVW, and NIJ where she has advocated for research, evaluation, and services for victims. Karma Cottman is Chief Executive Officer of Ujima – The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community. Cottman also serves on the steering committee of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African Community and the Policy Partnership for Communities of Color.
Each of these panelists has led efforts to implement VAWA, which has had tremendous impact on our country, culture, and millions of women across the United States.
VAWA Over the Years
Dr. Moore outlined the history of VAWA’s 30 years of policies, programs, and research. In 1994, the passage of VAWA addressed gender-based violence with enhanced criminal legal response, and each of its reauthorizations focused on new areas of concerns, filled gaps, further enhanced previous provisions, and instituted new programs. Some highlights: in 2000, the reauthorization expanded protection for immigrant women, victims of human trafficking, and juveniles. The 2005 reauthorization addressed people who cause harm repeatedly and focused attention on the use of DNA evidence. In 2013, the reauthorization added protection for American Indian and Alaska Native women and addressed cyberstalking. The 2022 authorization strengthened the authority of tribal jurisdictions in dealing with violence against women and focused on technological and economic abuse.
VAWA’s passage established the Office of Violence Against Women and each successive reauthorization supported additional mandates, creating multiple programs to help protect women. Over the years, NIJ has invested over $155 million in violence against women research and evaluation.
Research Informs Progress
Dir. Rosie Hidalgo described how crucial research has been to practitioners. Before VAWA, violence against women was often considered a taboo subject or private matter. Now approximately 80 organizations nationwide rely on this research to provide training and technical assistance to state and local service providers.
VAWA’s reauthorizations are opportunities to locate gaps and barriers in services and criminal justice response. This allows the violence against women community to inform the process and puts resources into its hands to close those gaps, particularly for marginalized and underserved communities. For example, the field heard from American Indian and Alaska Native women about disproportionately high rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) when tribal courts did not have jurisdiction, giving perpetrators a sense of impunity. NIJ cosponsored a survey to shine a light on this problem, which led to crafting legislation on domestic violence as part of the reauthorization in 2013. OVW helped fund training to implement the legislation. In 2022, OVW was able to use data from this experience to expand VAWA’s reach to allow tribal jurisdictions help victims of trafficking, stalking, and child abuse.
Survivors telling their personal stories helps to motivate change, creating a synergy with advocates, researchers, and practitioners who work together to gather evidence to support the need for legislation and legislative changes. Based on such feedback, OVW has started a restorative practices program and offers flexible financial assistance grants. They also launched a research and evaluation initiative in partnership with NIJ, which has funded around 50 grants so far.
VAWA Changes the Handling of Sexual Assault Kits
Dir. Kris Rose described how VAWA advanced what we know about untested sexual assault kits and helped change the way they are handled within the criminal justice community. In 2009, Human Rights Watch reported that Los Angeles had 12,000 untested kits. For hundreds of the cases for these kits, the suspect was not known. Hundreds of kits were more than 10 years old, which was beyond the statute of limitations for prosecuting cases, and hundreds more were close to expiring. The report brought national outrage to this issue, particularly as more and more stories emerged about large volumes of untested kits in other jurisdictions. Something needed to be done to address this.
Using VAWA funding, researchers first tested 400 random kits in Detroit to find out what information could be gained from such testing. From this sample they identified numerous serial rapists. Dir. Rose wanted to find the root causes for this national disgrace and do something about it, and this initial data provided the information needed to launch a bigger effort. In 2011, NIJ funded grants in Houston and Detroit to assess the scope of problem and form a plan to fix it. Grantees developed victim-centered, trauma-informed notification protocols because unexpected notifications about sexual assault kits that were collected long ago can re-traumatize survivors. In Houston, the grant helped develop a sexual assault kit squad and justice advocate who made sure notifications to victims about the results of their kits being processed were issued in a trauma-informed way. Police and prosecutors were trained on the neurobiology of trauma, and they created a hotline for information about the kits. In Detroit, they created a kit tracking system for police and survivors.
The grantees identified numerous reasons why so many kits languished untested, including chronic understaffing, turnovers in leadership, and minimal efforts expended in sexual assault investigations. Often, law enforcement personnel expressed negative, victim-blaming beliefs about sexual assault.
As part of the 2013 VAWA reauthorization, Congress passed the SAFER Act (the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting Act), which was based on best practices developed from the Detroit and Houston projects. SAFER provides for the audit, analysis, and accounting of kit backlogs, and it requires the development of policies and practices. As a result, some jurisdictions have no backlogs. The 2017 SAFER Report also lists 35 best practices for the management of sexual assault kits.
VAWA and Communities of Color
Karma Cottman explained how VAWA provoked the framework of a coordinated response between systems and communities at the local level (police, prosecutors, victim services, medical providers, etc.). Previously, talking about violence against women was seen as lifting the veil on a private conversation, but VAWA holds systems accountable for keeping survivors safe.
She noted how critically important it is to engage voices of communities of color when considering policies and practices as well as how survivors are engaged in systems. It is critical that these experiences are recognized and that these voices are heard. Underserved populations are more likely to be affected by gender-based violence. Black women are six times more likely to be murdered; as such, gender-based violence is literally a matter of life and death. This is why culturally specific organizations are critical to effective response.
The 2005 VAWA reauthorization included language about culturally specific approaches to addressing gender-based violence. This allows advocates from the government and communities to bring their experience to the reauthorization process and discuss what survivors were seeing. Interpreting laws relies on those very important partnerships between communities and government organizations.
VAWA helps change people’s view of community and how to do research. It challenges researchers to partner with community and culturally specific organizations, including sharing resources with them. Cottman encourages organizations to partner with culturally specific and community-based organizations. In her position, she can see the difference it makes.
The Future of VAWA
VAWA has supported much learning and data-driven guidance since its inception. But more work needs to be done. Moore spoke about the importance of restorative practices, an area that is beginning to get attention and received funding in the VAWA 2022 reauthorization. Early applications of VAWA often resulted in a disproportionately punitive stance against men of color — which had negative impacts on families. Restorative practices find ways to help men stop the violence and keep families safe. Cottman concurred and emphasized the importance of training and programs that are informed by culturally specific practices.
Hidalgo discussed how a Biden presidential executive order directed the development of the first U.S. national plan to end gender-based violence. More than 80 countries have such plans. The first pillar of the plan is prevention, which has no quick solution; it requires a whole of society approach. But we need more research on prevention to show what works. The seventh pillar focuses on research; more research is needed and outdated research on specific topics should be updated.
Highlighting the need to think about how domestic violence and intimate partner violence have an impact on future crimes, Rose noted links between people experiencing and committing domestic violence and committing mass gun violence. We should examine the impact of gender-based violence on future criminality.
Building on the idea of a national plan, Cottman discussed preventing gender-based violence, not just responding to it and pointed out that it is a human rights issue. She emphasized the importance of continuing to center communities of color in prevention, practice, and research.
When looking to the future, the panelists identified many areas for further research, including violence prevention, the role of technology in violence against women, and identifying protective factors. Helping survivors will require a better understanding of healing and more of the coordinated community response that VAWA has successfully implemented so far. The plenary ended on a high note as speakers considered how the act can help millions more women.