Categories
Domestic Violence False Allegations Violence Against Women Act

‘I think actually the prosecutions of women would skyrocket.’

‘I think actually the prosecutions of women would skyrocket.’

Coalition to End Domestic Violence

March 12, 2021

The recently introduced Violence Against Women Act bill includes this proposed redefinition of domestic violence (H.R. 1620, Section 2):

“The term ‘domestic violence’ means a pattern of behavior involving the use of physical, sexual, verbal, psychological, economic, or technological abuse.”

So ask yourself, “In the past year, has my spouse or partner….”:

  • Called me a name such as “stupid” or “lazy”?
  • Given me the “silence treatment”?
  • Scolded me to not over-spend the checking account?

These three questions represent verbal, psychological, and economic abuse, respectively. When these questions have been posed to Congressional staffers, almost all have answered with a sheepish smile, “yes.”

VAWA’s proposed expansion of the definition of domestic violence would serve to classify almost every American as a “victim” of domestic violence. This would have major consequences throughout our society:

  1. Criminal Justice Services: Expansive definitions would result in a sharp increase in the number of calls to police for protection from a spouse or partner who is engaging in such actions — as well as more arrests and prosecutions. This would reduce criminal justice services for the victims of violent crimes.
  2. Victim Service Providers: Turning every American into a victim would create requests for many billions of dollars in financial assistance from victim service providers and other agencies. Persons experiencing such actions could suddenly quit their jobs, costing states billions in Unemployment benefits.[1]
  3. Fragile Families: Eight percent of Americans report being falsely accused of abuse.[2] Claims of verbal, psychological, or economic abuse often are so vague that accused persons have no viable defense against a false allegation. This would exacerbate partner conflict and worsen family instability.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year men are more likely than women to be the victims of psychological aggression:[3]

  • 20.8 million male victims
  • 17.0 million female victims

Which is why University of Maryland law professor Leigh Goodmark commented about the criminalization of emotional abuse, “I think actually the prosecutions of women would skyrocket.”[4]

Verbal and psychological abuse is a real problem in our country. But turning this into a crime would wreak havoc on criminal justice services, victim service providers, and on fragile families.

[1]https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2020/04/16/revised_violence_against_women_act_could_cost_states_billions_in_unemployment_benefits_489245.html

[2] http://www.prosecutorintegrity.org/pr/survey-over-20-million-have-been-falsely-accused-of-abuse/

[3] https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/NISVS-StateReportBook.pdf  Tables 5.2 and 5.5.

[4] Presentation at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, Baltimore, Maryland. October 2, 2015.

Categories
Campus Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment Title IX

115 Lawmakers Call for Return to Failed Campus Policy

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

115 Lawmakers Call for Return to Failed Campus Policy

WASHINGTON / March 8, 2021 – SAVE is challenging a Congressional letter that calls on the Department of Education to replace the current Title IX regulation, which took effect last year, with “key portions” of its 2011 campus sexual assault directive. Organized by Rep. Jackie Speier of California, the March 2 letter is signed by 115 Democratic members of the House of Representatives (1).

Unfortunately, the 2011 directive, also known as the “Dear Colleague Letter,” failed to achieve its primary goal of reducing campus sexual assaults. The American Association of Universities reported increases among undergraduate students in the rate of nonconsensual sexual victimization from 2015 to 2019 (Men: 1.4% increase; Women: 3.0% increase). (2)

The Obama-era policy also failed to improve the reporting of sexual misconduct:

  1. Eight years after the policy took effect, only 11% of sexual assaults were reported to campus police. In addition, only 45% of victims reported that school officials were “very likely” or “extremely likely” to take their report seriously (3).
  2. The American Association of University Women reported that 89% of American colleges received zero reports of rape incidents in 2016 (4).

SAVE has documented numerous cases in which complainants were mistreated by campus officials (5). As a result, the number of Title IX complaints to the Department of Education increased more than five-fold following issuance of the 2011 directive (6).

The 2011 policy also gave rise to a spate of false allegations. According to Brett Sokolow, president of the Association of Title IX Administrators, “Probably 40 or 50% of allegations of sexual assault are baseless.” (7) To date, over 680 lawsuits have been filed by accused students against their universities (8).

The  directive was criticized by law professors from Harvard University (9), Penn Law (10), Cornell University (11), and from numerous other schools (12). Former Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also criticized campus procedures, commenting, “There’s been criticism of some college codes of conduct for not giving the accused person a fair opportunity to be heard, and that’s one of the basic tenets of our system, as you know, everyone deserves a fair hearing.” (13)

A number of organizations issued reports sharply critical of the Department of Education statement:

  • American College of Trial Lawyers (14)
  • American Association of University Professors (15)
  • National Association of Scholars (16)
  • American Bar Association Task Force (17)

These findings reveal the 2011 directive, which cost colleges many millions of dollars to implement (18), was both ineffective in curbing campus assaults, and harmful in curtailing accused students’ due process rights.

In light of these facts, SAVE urges lawmakers to speak out in support of policies that are consistent with constitutional due process guarantees, and are likely to succeed in reducing campus sexual assaults.

Links:

  1. https://speier.house.gov/_cache/files/1/b/1be77711-5eae-4bf8-bed0-dd59629db852/0D83F3D46B1ABB9DE425FBA985209850.2021-03-02dwc-title-ix-letter-to-cardona-final.pdf
  2. https://www.aau.edu/newsroom/press-releases/aau-releases-2019-survey-sexual-assault-and-misconduct
  3. https://www.aau.edu/newsroom/press-releases/aau-releases-2019-survey-sexual-assault-and-misconduct
  4. http://www.saveservices.org/2020/04/89-percent-of-colleges-reported-zero-incidents-of-rape-in-2015-2/
  5. https://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/victims-deserve-better/
  6. https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget20/justifications/z-ocr.pdf
  7. https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/legal-experts-say-bidens-pushing-ahead-to-the-obama-past-on-campus-rape-could-be/article_184d1e3a-3fc0-11eb-956d-87947675f52c.html
  8. https://www.titleixforall.com/
  9. https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/10/14/rethink-harvard-sexual-harassment-policy/HFDDiZN7nU2UwuUuWMnqbM/story.html
  10. http://media.philly.com/documents/OpenLetter.pdf
  11. https://www.scribd.com/document/375274931/John-Doe-v-Cornell-Motion-of-23-Cornell-Law-Professors-to-File-Amicus-Brief-in-Support-of-Student
  12. http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/Law-Professor-Open-Letter-May-16-2016.pdf
  13. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/ruth-bader-ginsburg-opens-up-about-metoo-voting-rights-and-millenials/553409/
  14. http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/aba_task_force_recommends_due_process_protections_in_campus_sexual_assault
  15. https://www.actl.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/position-statements-and-white-papers/task_force_allegations_of_sexual_violence_white_paper_final.pdf
  16. https://d28htnjz2elwuj.cloudfront.net/pdfs/7ea041e49156306ba76cb62a4f8c6c65.pdf
  17. http://www.nas.org/articles/OCRs_New_Sexual_Harassment_Guidelines_Threaten_Academic_Freedom_Due_Process
  18. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/us/colleges-beef-up-bureaucracies-to-deal-with-sexual-misconduct.html?_r=0