Category: Press Release

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Accusing U. Campus Press Release Sexual Assault

PR: Accusing U. Campaign Targets Dept. of Education Sex Directive

Contact: Teri Stoddard
Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

Accusing U. Campaign Targets Dept. of Education Sex Directive

Washington, DC/February 17, 2012 – Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) is set to launch Accusing U., a national campaign designed to educate college students about the Department of Education’s new Sexual Assault Directive. SAVE says the Directive subverts fundamental due process rights on college campuses.

The Accusing U. campaign will be unveiled at a panel presentation to be held Saturday, February 18 at 10:00am at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington DC. The panel will highlight DED’s alleged anti-civil rights agenda, which affects students and professors alike.

The American Association of University Professors, National Association of Scholars, and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education have all come out against the Directive (1). Over 30 editorials have criticized the mandate on civil rights grounds (2).

The erosion of civil rights of persons accused of sexual assault was highlighted in a recent Yale University case. Yale quarterback Patrick Witt, a promising candidate for a Rhodes Scholarship, saw his application blow up when The New York Times revealed he had been accused on scant evidence of sexual assault.

Because of the DED Directive, which removes the presumption of innocence, Witt was treated like a proven rapist. SAVE believes, as soon as an accusation was made, Yale felt compelled to consider him an offender.

The Education Department’s Directive requires universities to use the 51% preponderance-of-evidence standard in sexual assault claims, instead of the traditional clear-and-convincing basis to establish guilt. In the case of Patrick Witt, a single New York Times article had the effect of convicting him in the court of public opinion, according to a Wall Street Journal critique (3).

The DED has expanded the definition of rape to the point that if a woman drinks a single beer – even at her initiative – and then engages in sex, the Directive classifies the liaison as rape.

“The DED sex mandate is opening the floodgates to a tide wave of false allegations of rape. So what will happen to the credibility of real rape victims? Will they stop coming forward?” … asks SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook.

More information about the Accusing U. campaign can be seen here: www.accusingu.org

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org.

1. http://www.saveservices.org/falsely-accused/sex-assault/complaints
2. http://www.saveservices.org/camp/ded-directive/ded-editorials
3. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204652904577195270818190282.html

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Domestic Violence Press Release Victims Violence Violence Against Women Act

PR: NY Times Anti-Violence Editorial Shortchanges Victims, SAVE Says

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard,

Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

NY Times Anti-Violence Editorial Shortchanges Victims, SAVE Says

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — A recent New York Times editorial on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act offers its readers a superficial and misinformed perspective on a bill currently being considered in the Senate (1). The controversy centers on the lack of effectiveness of many of its provisions, according to Stop Abusive and Violent Environments.

Sen. Leahy’s VAWA proposal, S. 1925, recently was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 10-8 party line vote.

Domestic violence is caused by a range of emotional and social factors such as substance abuse, depression, and marital instability, according to the Centers for Disease Control (2). It follows that the key to solving partner violence would consist of alcohol treatment, therapy, and partner counseling.

But Sen. Leahy’s VAWA bill ignores the role of these factors. Instead, VAWA funds the use of restraining orders, mandatory arrest, and prosecution of cases. Such law enforcement measures are ineffective, and in the case of mandatory arrest, place victims at greater homicide risk (3).

Angela Moore Parmley, PhD of the Department of Justice has acknowledged, “We have no evidence to date that VAWA has led to a decrease in the overall levels of violence against women.” (4) Concerned Women for America notes that VAWA’s elastic definitions of abuse “actually squander the resources for victims of actual violence by failing to properly prioritize and assess victims.” (5)

To address these shortcomings, Stop Abusive and Violent Environments has developed the Partner Violence Reduction Act, which amends and strengthens the current Violence Against Women Act (6).

“The New York Times editorial calls on Republican lawmakers to ‘explain to voters why they refuse to get behind the federal fight against domestic violence and sexual assaults.’ But victims of domestic violence are demanding that Times editorialists go beyond partisan posturing, and ask why so many VAWA programs aren’t meeting basic expectations of accountability and effectiveness,” according to SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook.

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner abuse: www.saveservices.org

  1. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/opinion/republicans-retreat-on-domestic-violence.html
  2. http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/intimatepartnerviolence/riskprotectivefactors.html
  3. http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/Why-DV-Programs-Fail-to-Stop-Abuse
  4. Violence Against Women, Vol. 10, No. 12, 2004, p. 1424.
  5. http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/CWA-VAWALtr.2.1.2012.pdf
  6. http://www.saveservices.org/pvra
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Press Release Sexual Assault

PR: Centers for Disease Control Should Remove Flawed Rape Survey, Says Washington Post Editorial

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard

Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

Centers for Disease Control Should Remove Flawed Rape Survey,

Says Washington Post Editorial

Washington, DC/January 31, 2012 — A growing number of commentators are questioning the legitimacy of the CDC’s claims about rape and sexual assault. An op/ed published in the Washington Post exposes the scientific flaws in the study and calls outright for its retraction: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/cdc-study-on-sexual-violence-in-the-us-overstates-the-problem/2012/01/25/gIQAHRKPWQ_story.html

Columnist Christina Hoff Sommers concludes that the CDC’s findings are “wildly at odds with official crime statistics.”

Sommers does not exaggerate: The CDC reports 70 times the number of sexual crimes that the FBI’s gold-standard National Crime Victimization Survey does. Sommers makes the case that the political pressure of the domestic violence industry, whose interests are served by exaggerated statistics, is largely responsible for the CDC’s irresponsible sexual violence research.

Writing in December, Robert VerBruggen explained just how the CDC achieves its inflated statistics: “Researchers ask women about their sexual experiences, and then classify some experiences as ‘rape’ that most people, including the women themselves, do not consider to be rape.” http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/285936/re-sexual-assault-and-college-robert-verbruggen

Analyst Carey Roberts laid out commonplace New Years Eve scenarios in a recent column, and then explained how the CDC would have classified them all as rapes. “Rigging definitions to create bogus victims is old-hat to the abuse industry,” he said. http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/111229

The CDC’s exaggeration may be well-intended, these experts concede: the agency may believe that it is shedding light on the plight of victims. But as Sommers explains, “survivors of sexual violence would be better served by good research and sober estimates — not inflated statistics and sensationalism.”

In early January, Stop Abusive and Violent Environments sent a 12-page letter to CDC director Thomas Frieden outlining numerous concerns with the survey definitions, methods, and recommendations. Abuse prevention programs based on dubious research findings divert scarce resources away from true victims of violence, SAVE notes.

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org

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Dating Violence Press Release Violence

PR: Tell the Truth about Partner Abuse: SAVE’s New Year’s Resolution

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard

Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

Tell the Truth about Partner Abuse: SAVE’s New Year’s Resolution

Washington, DC/January 3, 2012 — As persons start 2012 intending to make good on their New Year’s resolutions, Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) is encouraging everyone to strike a blow against domestic violence by resolving to TELL THE TRUTH about partner abuse.

Over 280 scholarly studies show men and women are equally likely to slap, hit, or shove their partners: http://csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm. But some persons continue to be abuse deniers, downplaying the problem of female-initiated abuse, SAVE notes.

In September, Vice President Joseph Biden appeared on The View to discuss dating violence. Government studies show teenage girls are more likely than boys to be the aggressors: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf.  But when co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked the vice president to “remind the women that the way to get a man’s attention is not to hit him,” Mr. Biden turned to his usual talking points.

In some cases, male victims of domestic violence have found themselves the butt of public ridicule.

This past July, Catherine Becker of Garden Grove, Calif. drugged her husband, lashed him to a bed, severed his penis, and threw it into a garbage disposal. Sharon Osbourne of ABC’s The Talk described the incident as “hysterical” and boasted to her national audience, “It’s quite fabulous.” “When you cross a woman, all is fair,” remarked TV personality Wendy Williams.

Lesbian and gay victims are often ignored, as well. A LGBT Domestic Violence Fact Sheet issued by the Center for American Progress concludes, “barriers to equal treatment for same-sex couples remain.”

Abuse reduction efforts that are based on untrue assumptions are destined to be biased and ineffective. Said SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook, “Our success in countering abuse misinformation this past year gives us hope for all domestic violence victims in 2012. That’s why we want to encourage persons to keep their New Year’s resolutions to tell the truth about domestic violence.”

Columnist Barbara Kay recently decried the continuing denial of mutual partner aggression: “By now there is no excuse for the failure of governments at all levels to follow through on — or at least acknowledge — the settled science of bilateral violence….Who will have the courage to bell this politically correct cat? When will revenge end and fairness begin?”

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Press Release Violence

PR: Media Criticized for Biased Coverage of CDC Violence Report

PRESS RELEASE

Contact:
Teri Stoddard
tstoddard@saveservices.org

Media Criticized for Biased Coverage of CDC Violence Report

WASHINGTON, December 18  — Men are equally likely to be victims of intimate partner aggression and are far more likely to have experienced coercive control at the hands of their girlfriends and wives. But SAVE, a victim advocacy group, is charging widespread media bias in its coverage of a recent Centers for Disease Control report.

The CDC study, known as the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, reached the following conclusions:

— 6.5% of men and 6.3% of women were victims of intimate partner aggression in the previous 12 months (http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_Report2010-a.pdf , pages 43-44).

— Men were 50% more likely to have experienced coercive control than women (men: 15.2%; women: 10.7%) (page 46).

— 8.7% of men currently have an intimate partner who tried to get pregnant when he did not want to, or tried to stop either of them from using birth control. In comparison, only 4.8% of women currently have a partner who tried to get her pregnant when she didn’t want to (page 48).

But none of these key findings was mentioned in articles by the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, or any other major media reports reviewed to date.

Instead, media coverage focused on the survey’s finding that nearly one in five women were victims of rape or attempted rape. But media accounts sidestepped a controversial aspect of the CDC survey: the study’s inclusion of “completed alcohol/drug facilitated penetration” in its count of rape victims.

The CDC’s broad definition includes situations where the couple mutually agrees to attend a party and then engage in sexual relations. So if a husband and wife go to a New Year’s Eve party, enjoy several rounds of champagne toasts, and afterwards have sexual relations, the CDC definition would count him a rapist and his wife a rape victim.

And a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary in similar manner would be counted by the CDC as parties to a violent and abhorrent crime.

Columnist Robert VerBruggen highlighted the irony: “Researchers ask women about their sexual experiences, and then classify some experiences as ‘rape’ that most people, including the women themselves, do not consider to be rape.” (http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/285936/re-sexual-assault-and-college-robert-verbruggen)

“The average weather forecast provides readers with a more accurate and balanced picture than how most media outlets covered the CDC report,” explains SAVE spokesman Philip Cook. “Victims of domestic violence and sexual assault deserve better than one-sided headlines, inflammatory images, and fawning editorials.”

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner abuse: www.saveservices.org

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CAMP Domestic Violence Press Release Violence

PR: Verizon Abuse Video Sparks Controversy, Condemnation

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard

Telephone: 301-801-0608

Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

Verizon Abuse Video Sparks Controversy, Condemnation

Washington, DC/December 6, 2011 — SAVE is charging the Verizon Foundation with misleading the public about domestic violence, after the corporate giant released a video filled with one-sided images and controversial claims. Titled “Monsters”, the video presents a bleak picture of home life in America: fathers as abusers, wives and daughters as victims, and sons as future batterers (1).

Research shows levels of partner aggression are the same among males and females (2), an observation highlighted by the recent TV clip of starlet Kim Kardashian punching her husband Kris with a closed fist. A recent Washington Post article documents growing levels of aggressive behavior among women on campuses and in schools (3).

The provocative Verizon video has stirred controversy and invited condemnation.

One editorialist deplored the video’s “misandric boy bashing” and charged the information “has the potential for spreading harm and hate.” (4) The pro-feminist blog Jezebel has described the video as “disturbing” (5). Deploring the overt biases in the video, a blogger at RoarforFreedom wrote, “My mother still tries to convince all of her adult children–as well as the grandchildren, what an idiot and monster my father is” (6).

The Monsters video is not the only source of false information from the Verizon Foundation.

The Verizon website makes the claim, “Domestic violence is the single greatest cause of injury to women ages 15 to 44 in the U.S. – more than muggings, car accidents and rapes combined.” (7).

But leading family researcher Richard Gelles counters, “as good a sound bite as it is, the statement is simply not true.” (8) The overwhelming leading causes of injury to women in this age group are accidental falls and automobile accidents.

The Verizon website claims, “One in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.” But a balanced statement would indicate that one in four men also experience domestic violence in their lifetimes.

By focusing on aid only for female victims, Verizon ignores half of the population in need of help and perpetuates inappropriate stereotypes.

“Verizon’s video smears fathers as the only potential abusers in a household, when in fact women are as likely to abuse their partners, and more likely to physically abuse children,” explains SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook. “This scary animated video labels all fathers as potential ‘monsters,’ and frightens impressionable children.”

Misinformation and false stereotypes are widespread and undermine legitimate abuse-reduction efforts: http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/SAVE-DV-Educational-Programs.

(1)   http://www.multivu.com/mnr/52044-verizon-foundation-national-domestic-hotline-video-launch-monsters

(2)   http://csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm

(3)   http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/violent-incidents-involving-female-students-surge-on-campuses-in-schools/2011/11/11/gIQAOsMJJN_story.html

(4)   http://ncfm.org/2011/12/action/the-verizon-foundation-and-the-national-domestic-violence-hotline-team-up-to-promote-hate/

(5)   http://jezebel.com/5865167/domestic-violence-ad-implies-only-men-are-abusers?autoplay

(6)   http://www.roarforfreedom.com/comment-on-domestic-violence-psa-boycott-verizon-for-portraying-all-men-as-abusive-monsters-and-all-boys-as-potential-abusive-monsters-by-thegirlinside/

(7)   http://foundation.verizon.com/core/domestic.shtml

(8)   Gelles R. The politics of research: The use, abuse, and misuse of social science data. Family Court Review Vol. 45, 2007, page 45.

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org.

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CAMP Domestic Violence Press Release Victims Violence

PR: Verizon Video Teaches Children to Fear Fathers, SAVE Charges

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard

Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

Verizon Video Teaches Children to Fear Fathers, SAVE Charges

Washington, DC/November 29, 2011 — A domestic violence video produced by the Verizon Foundation distorts the facts, plays on emotions, and serves to alarm and frighten young children. Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), an advocate for domestic violence victims, has communicated with Verizon executives about the numerous factual errors, but the company refuses to correct its dangerous misinformation.

Titled “Monsters,” the video revels in powerful yet destructive stereotypes: fathers as abusers, wives as victims, and young boys as future abusers. “The child who lives with domestic violence… is afraid of the monster just down the hall,” a girl’s voiceover intones, while frightening images of a hunchbacked monster-dad flit across the screen: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/52044-verizon-foundation-national-domestic-hotline-video-launch-monsters.

Verizon’s aim in making the video — to help victims caught in abusive relationships — was noble. But the corporation is condoning the cycle of violence, since half of all partner abuse is mutual. An exhaustive California State University review of scholarship determined that levels of partner aggression are the same, if not higher, among females: http://csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm.

This past Sunday a Philadelphia woman struck her boyfriend with her car when he attempted to escape the vehicle. The man was crushed by the impact and pronounced dead at the scene: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/angry_girlfriend_kills_beau_with_xRacWhxDNQjqDrY4fVQMHL#ixzz1f3B7TotP.

And a recent Washington Post article documented growing levels of aggressive behavior among women on campuses and in schools: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/violent-incidents-involving-female-students-surge-on-campuses-in-schools/2011/11/11/gIQAOsMJJN_story.html.

The compelling — but unfounded — stereotype of an abuser population of men may prevent half of domestic violence victims from reporting their abuse, and half its perpetrators from receiving the intervention they need.

“This video is particularly disturbing since the use of animation makes it appealing to children. It smears adult men as the only abusers in a household, when the fact is women are as likely to abuse their partners as men,” explains SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook. “This video is dangerously harmful to children and to families.”

SAVE has documented that domestic violence misinformation is widespread and undermines the credibility and effectiveness of legitimate abuse-reduction programs: http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/SAVE-DV-Educational-Programs.

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Campus Civil Rights Dating Violence Press Release Sexual Assault Violence Against Women Act

PR: Senator Drops Controversial VAWA Campus Sex Provision, But Civil Rights Violations Remain

Contact: Teri Stoddard

Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

 

Senator Drops Controversial VAWA Campus Sex Provision, But Civil Rights Violations Remain

Washington, DC/November 14, 2011 — As a result of criticism from Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE)  and other groups, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has dropped the controversial “preponderance of evidence” standard from his proposed Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization bill. “Because of the feedback he has received concerning this proposal, he does not plan to include it in the bill he later will introduce,” according to Erica Chabot, spokeswoman for the Senate Judiciary Committee (1).

Language in the draft bill would have required federally funded universities to apply a lower standard of proof — a 51% “preponderance” of evidence rather than the usual “clear and convincing” evidence — in cases of alleged sexual assault or domestic violence.

SAVE is thankful that the Senator decided to drop this section from his proposed bill, but other parts of the measure still contain troubling civil rights concerns:

Due Process Violations:

  • Allows for the continued funding of mandatory arrest policies, which a Harvard study found to increases in partner homicides of 60 percent.
  • One false allegation can be used to tear apart a family: VAWA is an engine for the growth of single-parent households and the demand for welfare services.

Equal Protection Violations:

  • Provides legal assistance to accusers, and at the same time, denies it for the accused.
  • Perpetuates sex-based discrimination through biased predominant aggressor policies and continues due process violations.
  • Does not distinguish between those simply making allegations and those with probable-cause evidence of violence or abuse.

These civil rights problems are explained in SAVE’s Special Report, Are Domestic Violence Policies Respecting our Fundamental Freedoms? (2).

Violations of citizens’ civil rights cannot be justified by resulting reductions in partner abuse. The Department of Justice has acknowledged, “We have no evidence to date that VAWA has led to a decrease in the overall levels of violence against women.”

SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook says, “We congratulate Senator Leahy for removing the unacceptable ‘preponderance of evidence’ language from his bill. It shows that he is responsive to well-documented civil rights concerns. We hope that he and other Senators will now take the necessary steps to ensure that the many other problems with the proposed legislation are also addressed.”

(1)   http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20111111/NEWS03/111111020/Leahy-scraps-provision-upcoming-bill-following-complaints?odyssey=nav%7Chead

(2)   http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/SAVE-Assault-Civil-Rights

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org.

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Campus False Allegations Press Release Sexual Assault Victims Violence Violence Against Women Act

PR: False Accusations of Sexual Harassment May Soar, SAVE Warns

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard

Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

False Accusations of Sexual Harassment May Soar, SAVE Warns

Washington, DC/November 8, 2011 – The National Association of Scholars recently released a position paper condemning an Education Department directive that forces colleges to remove fundamental due process protections from persons accused of sexual harassment. The statement describes the Dept. of Education mandate as “ominous,” bordering on the “surreal,” and excluding any mention of free speech.

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) position statement follows similar letters by the American Association for University Professors, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and Stop Abusive and Violent Environments: http://www.saveservices.org/falsely-accused/sex-assault/complaints/

Concerns about false allegations in society have escalated in the past week as a growing number of persons have questioned the validity of accusations by two unnamed women that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed them over 10 years ago. Leading Democratic politicians have been subjected to false allegations of sexual offenses, as well.

The Department of Education directive mandates that all colleges receiving federal funds change the usual “clear and convincing” standard to “preponderance of evidence.” This low standard requires only that 50.01 percent of the evidence be in favor of an offense having happened in order to reach a conviction.

Of greater concern, the draft of the federal Violence Against Women Act, currently being circulated by Senator Patrick Leahy, proposes to turn the Department of Education directive into statutory law. “It really is strange for a bill to delegate to a federal agency the power to lower due process protections and standards of proof. I believe that is unprecedented,” says Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“The consensus among academics is that the proposed VAWA would turn campus disciplinary committees into veritable Kangaroo Courts, thus increasing the number of false allegations by leaps and bounds,” warns SAVE spokesman Philip Cook.

A student who was wrongfully expelled by the University of North Dakota after a cavalier investigation of sexual assault charges against him is a recent example: http://www.saveservices.org/2011/10/falsely-accused-student-will-not-return-to-college-that-wrongfully-expelled-him/

Over the last 20 years, sexual harassment policies on college campuses have become increasingly neglectful of Constitutional protections, reveals the NAS. In one case, a professor of history was handed a pink slip, unaware of the accusation or of a clandestine investigation being conducted against him.

SAVE calls on Senator Leahy’s proposed Violence Against Women Act to protect the civil rights of the accused so the credibility of true victims is not diminished by trivial and non-meritorious claims.

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org

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False Allegations Press Release Sexual Assault Violence Violence Against Women Act

PR: Bogus Sex Harassment Claims on the Upswing, Says Victim Rights Group

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard

tstoddard@saveservices.org

Bogus Sex Harassment Claims on the Upswing, Says Victim Rights Group

WASHINGTON/ November 1 – Following recent publication of sexual harassment claims against presidential candidate Herman Cain, a leading victim-rights organization is deploring the use of such accusations as a political maneuver. Resurrected in the middle of a closely fought political campaign, such allegations rob true victims of their credibility and trivialize the problem, according to Stop Abusive and Violent Environments.

This past Sunday, Politico published an article that recounted charges by two unnamed women of alleged “inappropriate behavior” by Herman Cain when he was the president of the National Restaurant Association. The Politico essay describes the behavior as “conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature” and “physical gestures that were not overtly sexual.”

False allegations of sexual misconduct have been leveled against candidates of both political parties, including former vice president Al Gore and Massachusetts senator Scott Brown.

The former wife of Democratic congressman Al Wynn (Maryland) once threatened to throw herself down a flight of stairs and then accuse him of attacking her in order to “ruin your political career.” In 2006, former Republican congressman John Sweeney (New York) narrowly lost his re-election bid following a planted media account of domestic violence.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that conduct must be “severe” or “pervasive” in order to be deemed sexual harassment. The women never alleged that Cain made any inappropriate requests or that his behavior was pervasive. The decade-old claim that his comments or gestures were “severe” is unlikely.

“We live in a society in which false claims are on the brink of becoming the norm,” explains SAVE spokesman Philip Cook. “Much of the problem can be traced to federal laws like the Violence Against Women Act that, despite the considerable good they do, in some ways encourage scurrilous accusations.”

SAVE is recommending that the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act contain strong language to discourage false allegations, including narrowing definitions of abuse, giving priority to victims with evidence of physical abuse, and providing legal help to the accused on the same footing as accusers: http://www.saveservices.org/pvra

One in 10 persons has been falsely accused of abuse, according to a national survey conducted by SAVE: http://www.saveservices.org/falsely-accused/survey

 

SAVE is a victim rights organization working for evidence-based solutions to domestic violence: www.saveservices.org