VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT was introduced in Congress in January 1991 by Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware. In 1991 an estimated 4 million women were victims of domestic violence, with 20 percent of all assaults that were reported to the police occurring in the home. The bill was made part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and was signed into law on 13 September 1994, by President Bill Clinton.

The act authorized $1.6 billion to be spent over six years on the creation of rape crisis centers and battered women's shelters and authorized additional local police, prosecutors, victim advocates, and a domestic violence hotline. Funds were also made available to provide special training for judges who hear domestic violence cases. Provisions of the act expanded rape shield laws, created offenses for interstate spousal abuse, and allowed victims of gender-based crimes to sue those responsible in federal court. The act requires victims to prove the crime was not random and was motivated by animus based on gender. Portions of the act not originally part of the Violence Against Women Bill include restrictions on gun purchases for persons guilty of domestic abuse, safeguards to protect the confidentiality of information kept by state motor vehicle bureaus, and increased penalties for hate crimes in which the victim is targeted on the basis of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. Although Republicans attempted to remove domestic violence provisions from the act, on the grounds that funding them constituted government waste, they were narrowly defeated in the House of Representatives and by a cloture vote ending a filibuster in the Senate.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brooks, Rachelle. "Feminists Negotiate the Legislative Branch: The Violence Against Women Act." In Feminists Negotiate the State: The Politics of Domestic Violence. Edited by Cynthia R. Daniels. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997.

Justice Research and Statistics Association. Domestic and Sexual Violence Data Collection: A Report to Congress under the Violence Against Women Act. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, 1996.

Schneider, Elizabeth M. Battered Women and Feminist Lawmaking. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000.

U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Turning Act into Action: The Violence Against Women Law. Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1994.

Irwin N.Gertzog/h. s.

See alsoRape ; Women in Public Life, Business, and Professions .