Category: Sexual Assault

Categories
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

Categories
Dating Violence Press Release Sexual Assault Victims Violence

Partner Violence Reduction Act Brings Hope to Victims

Partner Violence Reduction Act Brings Hope to Victims

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Aiming to strengthen the federal Violence Against Women Act, today the Partner Violence Reduction Act was released for consideration and future enactment by the United State Congress. The proposed law was developed by Stop Abusive and Violent Environments – SAVE – a national victim-advocacy organization.

The Partner Violence Reduction Act will bring hope to abuse victims such as Ebonee Barnes, mother of three. Writing in a Philadelphia-area newspaper, Barnes recently revealed that the “shelters they place us in are beyond unlivable.”

The Partner Violence Reduction Act will also offer hope to persons like Sean Lanigan, a northern Virginia teacher who was falsely accused by a student of sexual assault. As featured in a recent Washington Post expose, the school district refused to restore Lanigan’s full teaching privileges even after a jury found him innocent of all charges.

And the Partner Violence Reduction Act will kindle hope among victims of domestic violence who have been refused help on account of their sex or gender identity. The PVRA will ban discriminatory practices by abuse shelters and other domestic violence services.

Part of the problem stems from overly-broad definitions of abuse. “Right now, just raising your voice counts as ‘domestic violence,’ which clogs the system with trivial and even false complaints,” explains SAVE spokesman Philip Cook. “That forces persons in life-threatening situations to wait their turn and hope for the best.”

The Partner Violence Reduction Act:

  1. Gives first priority to real victims and reduces false allegations by constraining definitions and distinguishing between an allegation and a judicial finding of domestic violence.
  2. Makes the law gender-inclusive and removes discriminatory policies.
  3. Seeks to protect and restore families when the abuse is minor.
  4. Removes harmful mandatory arrest, predominant aggressor, and no-drop prosecution policies, thus helping to restore due process.
  5. Allows legal assistance to be provided both to the alleged victim and alleged offender.
  6. Improves the accountability of domestic violence organizations.
  7. Curbs immigration fraud.
  8. Removes provisions that violate the Constitution and restores civil rights to the accused.
Categories
Domestic Violence Press Release Sexual Assault Victims Violence

NFL Must Tackle Super Bowl Abuse Myth

Contact: Teri Stoddard, 301-801-0608, tstoddard@saveservices.org

WASHINGTON / February 4, 2011 – A victim rights group is calling on the National Football League to denounce the myth that Super Bowl Sunday is a “day of dread” for victims of abuse. Stop Abusive and Violent Environments – SAVE – believes such claims foster hysteria and trivialize the problem of domestic violence.

The myth dates back to 1993 when a group of activists charged Super Bowl Sunday was “biggest day of the year for violence against women.” The myth was later refuted by the Washington Post: http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/superbowl.asp

Still, groups like the Crisis Control Center in Texas are using the falsehood to promote its fund-raising efforts. According to a recent Crisis Control Center statement, Super Bowl weekend has “one of the highest incidences of domestic violence and sexual assault than any other weekend during the year.”

But Christina Hoff Sommers of the American Enterprise Institute doubts that view. “Women who are at risk for domestic violence are going to be helped by state of the art research and good information. They are not going to be helped by hyperbole and manufactured data,” she explained in a recent interview with The Daily Caller.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has recently joined the 15th anniversary team of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, along with other sports figures.

“While we appreciate Commissioner Goodell’s efforts to bring attention to the issue of domestic violence, he should also refuse to allow this persistent lie to stereotype NFL players as abusers or to tarnish the family appeal of the annual Super Bowl event,” according to SAVE spokesman Philip Cook. “We call on Mr. Goodell to repudiate the Super Bowl Myth as a spurious and blatant distortion of the truth.”

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments has recently released a video, “Seven Key Facts about Domestic Violence,” that documents how partner abuse is an equal opportunity problem of men and women: http://www.saveservices.org/key-facts/ . SAVE sponsors the TEPA (Training, Education, and Public Awareness) Accreditation program, a quality-assurance initiative: http://www.saveservices.org/service-providers/ .

And SAVE will be holding a conference February 24 in Washington DC. Persons who wish to attend “Hoax: The Continuing Distortions of Domestic Abuse” should pre-register here: tstoddard@saveservices.org .

SAVE is a 501(c)3 victim advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to domestic violence: www.saveservices.org .