DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEGISLATIONS
Domestic violence can be simply put as any form of abusive behavior used by a partner in a relationship to gain control over another partner usually a dear one to that matter. In most cases, domestic violence is accompanied by fear and intimidation. Domestic violence can take many forms, ranging from physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, verbal, and economic amongst other forms. From this, it is evident that domestic violence enshrines any form of violent that has the ability to “intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.” Domestic violence affects people from both diverse socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds regardless of their societal status. Also, domestic violence is not limited to marriage only, it also occurs in dating and cohabiting set ups. This also alludes to the fact that domestic violence is not limited to heterosexual relationships; even homosexual unions are vulnerable to domestic violence. Effects of domestic violence are not limited to the abused only, they also spill over to other family members especially children, the community at large, co-workers friends, amongst many other forms of societal groupings.
As a result of the severity of the issue, there are several legislations in place to minimize domestic violence in the United States of America. The first legislation was enforced approximately 17years ago. This is commonly dubbed as the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994. VAWA has been amended twice; in the years 2000 and 2005. VAWA provided government agencies as well as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) with the first legislative framework to counter violence amongst women at all spheres of life. This includes home and work alike. Most importantly, VAWA introduced punitive measures to violators of the law and initiated community based projects and programs to eradicate violence against women in all spheres of life especially the home front. With time, the legislation has been amended and presently the scope of coverage of VAWA includes but is not limited to community based violence protection initiatives, support services to victims of domestic violence (this include hotlines, initiatives to protect the rights of immigrant women, children and teenagers, and rape crisis centers), legal and financial aide to victims. We shall now briefly discuss the provisions of VAWA.
VAWA defines domestic violence as acts “committed by an intimate partner, parent, or guardian of the victim that required the use or attempted use of physical force or the threatened use of a deadly weapon.” Consequently, an intimate partner is viewed upon as a spouse, former spouse, any person who shares a common child with victim and any person who cohabits or used to cohabit with the victim. VAWA also asserts that “violence against women is a crime with far-reaching, harmful consequences for families, children and society." Thus, VAWA effectively changed federal, state, local and tribal response to violence by engaging formerly passive agencies in response such as law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and the community at large. VAWA also encouraged the federal government to commit towards eliminating domestic violence at all levels of the society.
The act achieved this through defining all forms of domestic violence and establishing new forms of domestic violence such as stalking and sexual abuse to fill implementation gaps. Also, the legislation’s main focus was on the rights of the marginalized women whose needs had been neglected in the past or ignored all together. This includes the immigrant and Native American women. Other provisions of the act include federal prosecution of interstate domestic violence crimes and guarantees of interstate protection against domestic violence. VAWA made it mandatory for all states to enact over 600laws that criminalize domestic violence. VAWA is enforced by National Advisory Committee on Violence against Women which is a joint initiative between the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) of 1984 is basically a federally funded legislation dedicated at both adult and child victims of domestic violence. The core purpose of the FVPSA is to make it legal for the federal government to be able to fund programs and initiatives directed at victims of domestic violence. The act achieves this by administering grants to States, Territories and Tribes, State domestic violence coalitions, and national and special-issue resource centers for the sole purpose of mitigating domestic violence in their respective jurisdictions. The enactment of FVPSA and its related programs is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Currently, over 2000 domestic violence agencies rely on the funding of the federal government as stipulated under the FVPSA to meet their objectives and mandate. This act has been amended at least seven times to ensure smooth implementation. The FVPSA expired in the year 2008 but as a result of massive lobbying from most stakeholders, the act was consequently reauthorized and assented into law in the year 2010. From the above discussion, it is clear that the FVPSA paly a complementary role to VAWA and without it, consequent implementation of VAWA would be crippled.
References
JWI. (2010, May 3). The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from JWI (Jewish Women International): http://www.jwi.org/page.aspx?pid=1400
NNEDV. (2011, January 25). Family Violence Prevention & Services Act. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from National Network To End Domestic Violence: http://www.nnedv.org/policy/issues/fvpsa.html
The Hotline. (2010, June 5). VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT (VAWA). Retrieved March 29, 2012, from The Hotline: http://www.thehotline.org/get-educated/violence-against-women-act-vawa/
The US Department of Justice. (2010, April 8). Domestic Violence. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from The United States Department Of Justice: http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/domviolence.htm
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2011, May 18). Violence Against Women. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from Womenshealth.gov: http://www.womenshealth.gov/violence-against-women/laws-on-violence-against-women/
