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January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

THERE ARE MORE THAN 30 MILLION SLAVES IN THE WORLD TODAY, MORE THAN AT ANY OTHER POINT IN HUMAN HISTORY.

President Barack Obama has proclaimed January “National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month”

“This month, we rededicate ourselves to stopping one of the greatest human rights abuses of our time. Around the world, millions of men, women, and children are bought, sold, beaten, and abused, locked in compelled service and hidden in darkness. They toil in factories and fields; in brothels and sweatshops; at sea, abroad, and at home. They are the victims of human trafficking — a crime that amounts to modern-day slavery.

A press statement put out by NAAG President and Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna states:

“‪Human trafficking is a $32 billion global industry, the fastest growing and second largest criminal activity in the world, tied with arms and after drug dealing. I applaud President Obama’s effort to bring this issue to the forefront in the minds of Americans by proclaiming January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.”

The Polaris Project defines Human Trafficking as:

“Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery where people profit from the control and exploitation of others. As defined under U.S. federal law, victims of human trafficking include children involved in the sex trade, adults age 18 or over who are coerced or deceived into commercial sex acts, and anyone forced into different forms of “labor or services,” such as domestic workers held in a home, or farm-workers forced to labor against their will. The factors that each of these situations have in common are elements of force, fraud, or coercion that are used to control people.  Then, that control is tied to inducing someone into commercial sex acts, or labor or services.  Numerous people in the field have summed up the concept of human trafficking as “compelled service.”  Every year, human traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits by victimizing millions of people around the world, and here in the United States.  Human trafficking is considered to be one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world. Click here to access human trafficking resource packs.”

they further define Sex Trafficking as:

“Sex trafficking occurs when people are forced or coerced into the commercial sex trade against their will.  Child sex trafficking includes any child involved in commercial sex.  Sex traffickers frequently target vulnerable people with histories of abuse and then use violence, threats, lies, false promises, debt bondage, or other forms of control and manipulation to keep victims involved in the sex industry.  Sex trafficking exists within the broader commercial sex trade, often at much larger rates than most people realize or understand.  Sex trafficking has been found in a wide variety of venues of the overall sex industry, including residential brothels, hostess clubs, online escort services, fake massage businesses, strip clubs, and street prostitution. For sex trafficking resource packs, click here.”

Not For Sale hosts information and provides programs to help communities vulnerable to exploitation.  They have a Slavery Map depicting incidents of trafficking.  Post your story.

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The Violence Against Women Act Dies…. Did one person kill it?

Apparently The Violence Against Women Act died last night.  How could this happen?  How does a country founded on freedom and equal rights continue to deny that very thing to certain people?  How can House Majority Leader Eric Cantor have supported such a bill while he was seemingly working to support other non-partisan efforts.

For those just tuning in, one of the items up for consideration at the conclusion of the 112th Congress was the Senate bill reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, otherwise known as VAWA.  This act was originally passed in 1994.  This time when it came up for renewal, the Senate version had newly added tribal protections for American Indian women, granting tribes limited authority to prosecute sexual-assault crimes on their lands–whether the crimes are committed by American Indians or not.  Eric Cantor campaigned against this version of the bill.  Instead, Cantor offered up a version which excluded the new American Indian protections, along with those for undocumented immigrants as well as lesbian and trans women, which the House passed.

Eric Cantor did not offer up any reasons for his actions to deny every woman in America the same legal protections against violent perpetrators.   When MSNBC reported this story, they listed the following quotes:

  •  In December on Melissa Harris-Perry, National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neill said the fight was “draining the resources of the advocacy groups that have been working on re-authorization for two solid years. Many of the advocacy groups also provide services; their resources are being drained. I don’t think that’s a mistake.”
  • The chief Democratic advocate for the VAWA reauthorization, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, released a statement that was reported in Jezebel:  “The House Republican leadership’s failure to take up and pass the Senate’s bipartisan and inclusive VAWA bill is inexcusable. This is a bill that passed with 68 votes in the Senate and that extends the bill’s protections to 30 million more women. But this seems to be how House Republican leadership operates. No matter how broad the bipartisan support, no matter who gets hurt in the process, the politics of the right wing of their party always comes first.”

Can a representative for the people, and the GOP,  really be so indifferent to the rights of women?  Is what O’Neill suggested, a desire and plan to exhaust advocacy groups and their resource, really true?  Why be determined to so actively block equal protections for only certain groups of women: Native American, Undocumented Immigrants, and those who identify as Lesbian and Transgender?   Don’t you want to demand an explanation?

Feel free to contact his office and ask. http://cantor.house.gov/contact

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Stalking: Know It, Name It, Stop It

January is National Stalking Awareness Month, a time to focus on a crime that affects 6.6 million victims a year.

While legal definitions of stalking vary from one jurisdiction to another, a good working definition of stalking is a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.

STALKING VICTIMIZATION

• 6.6 million people are stalked in one year in the United States.
• 1 in 6 women and 1 in 19 men have experienced stalking victimization at some point during their lifetime in which they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed. Using a less conservative definition of stalking, which considers any amount of fear (i.e., a little fearful, somewhat fearful, or very fearful), 1 in 4 women and 1 in 13 men reported being a victim of stalking in their lifetime.
• The majority of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know. 66% of female victims and 41% of male victims of stalking are stalked by a current or former intimate partner.
• More than half of female victims and more than 1/3 of male victims of stalking indicated that they were stalked before the age of 25.
• About 1 in 5 female victims and 1 in 14 male victims experienced stalking between the ages of 11 and 17. [Michele C. Black et al., “The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2010 Summary Report,” (Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011).]
• 46% of stalking victims experience at least one unwanted contact per week.
• 11% of stalking victims have been stalked for 5 years or more. [Katrina Baum et al., “Stalking Victimization in the United States,” (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009).]

STALKING AND INTIMATE PARTNER FEMICIDE

• 76% of intimate partner femicide victims have been stalked by their intimate partner.
• 67% had been physically abused by their intimate partner.
• 89% of femicide victims who had been physically assaulted had also been stalked in the 12 months before their murder.
• 79% of abused femicide victims reported being stalked during the same period that they were abused.
• 54% of femicide victims reported stalking to police before they were killed by their stalkers.
[Judith McFarlane et al., “Stalking and Intimate Partner Femicide,” Homicide Studies 3, no. 4 (1999).]

RECON STUDY OF STALKERS

• 2/3 of stalkers pursue their victims at least once per week, many daily, using more than one method.
• 78% of stalkers use more than one means of approach.
• Weapons are used to harm or threaten victims in 1 out of 5 cases.
• Almost 1/3 of stalkers have stalked before.
• Intimate partner stalkers frequently approach their targets, and their behaviors escalate quickly. [Kris Mohandie et al.,“The RECON Typology of Stalking: Reliability and Validity Based upon a Large Sample of North American Stalkers,” Journal of Forensic Sciences, 51, no. 1 (2006).]

IMPACT OF STALKING ON VICTIMS

• 46% of stalking victims fear not knowing what will happen next.
• 29% of stalking victims fear the stalking will never stop.
• 1 in 8 employed stalking victims lose time from work as a result of their victimization and more than half lose 5 days of work or more.
• 1 in 7 stalking victims move as a result of their victimization. [Baum et al.]
• The prevalence of anxiety, insomnia, social dysfunction, and severe depression is much higher among stalking victims than the general population, especially if the stalking involves being followed or having one’s property destroyed. [Eric Blauuw et al., “The Toll of Stalking,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17, no. 1 (2002):50-63.]

STALKING LAWS

• Stalking is a crime under the laws of 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Territories, and the Federal government.
• Less than 1/3 of states classify stalking as a felony upon first offense.
• More than 1/2 of states classify stalking as a felony upon second or subsequent offense or when the crime involves aggravating factors.
• Aggravating factors may include: possession of a deadly weapon, violation of a court order or condition of probation/parole, victim under 16 years, or same victim as prior occasions.
For a compilation of state, tribal, and federal laws visit www.victimsofcrime.org/src.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The mission of the Stalking Resource Center is to enhance the ability of professionals, organizations, and systems to effectively respond to stalking. The Stalking Resource Center envisions a future in which the criminal justice system and its many allied community partners will effectively collaborate and respond to stalking, improve victim safety and well-being, and hold offenders accountable. Visit us online at www.victimsofcrime.org/src. Contact us at 202-467-8700 or src@ncvc.org.
This document was developed under grant number 2008-TA-AX-K017 from the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) of the U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions and views expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Office on Violence Against Women of the U.S. Department of Justice. For more information on the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women visit http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov

This document may be reproduced only in its entirety. Any alterations must be approved by the Stalking Resource Center

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My upcoming show: The Anti-Violence Advocate

My upcoming show: The Anti-Violence Advocate, is going to be focused on violence and it’s impact on the individual, relationships, families, and our communities.   Violence has great consequences across communities and is integrally linked to oppression of women and marginalized populations, the perpetuation of sexism, racism, heteronormativity, transphobia and other ideologies of domination.

 

Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against a person or against a group or community that either results in or would have a high likelihood to result in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.

 

 Violence and injuries kill more people aged 1 – 44 than any other cause and results in over 400 billion in medical care annually.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention consider this to be one the most serious health problems in the United States.  Yet the numbers of violent deaths is only a portion of the story.  Interpersonal violence in the form of child abuse, sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, dating violence, and human trafficking for sexual exploitation effects 1 in 4 or more of women and 1 in 8 or more of males.  Survivors are left with permanent physical and emotional scars that can change lives forever by impacting mental health, impairing social functioning and slowing economic and social development, and require ongoing intervention.  But here again, the impact on the survivor is only part of the story.  Violence erodes our communities by increasing costs and demands on medical care, reducing productivity, decreasing property values, and disrupting social services.  The range of interpersonal violence I described contributes to truancy, unemployment, unplanned pregnancies, communicable diseases, unhealthy relationships, substance abuse and dependency, and reduction or loss of income. 

 

Violence is perpetuated against more than 25% of our community individually and impacts a 100% of our community.  If violence was a disease, it would be considered an epidemic.  Social forces would mobilize, funders would come out in droves, and programs would be implemented to effect change immediately.  But for violence, that still is not happening consistently or maintained strategically.  And why is that?  As violence is an intentional act, it then bodes the realization that it is preventable.  While some people with mental health disorders may cause violence without understanding what they are doing, most violence is premeditated and planned.  People intentionally make decisions to perpetuate violence against others, with the highest numbers of violence perpetuated against women and members of marginalized communities. 

 

Interpersonal and social factors are related to both the cause and the prevention of violence.  The potentially modifiable factors most associated with levels of violence are concentrated poverty, income disparity, the absence of stable and healthy relationships within families, and (what might be most controversial for some) gender inequality. 

A strategic approach addressing the underlying causes of violence is most effective in preventing violence.  Evidenced-based or scientifically credible strategies to prevent violence include nurse home-visiting and parenting education to prevent child maltreatment; life skills training for children ages 6–18 years; school-based programmes to address gender norms and attitudes; reducing alcohol availability and misuse; reducing access to guns and knives; and promoting gender and racial equality by, for instance, supporting the economic empowerment of women and traditionally marginalized ethnic and cultural groups. 

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NSVRC Releases New Prevention Report

The NSVRC has released the Prevention Assessment Year 2 Report: Innovations in Prevention.   This report was prepared for the NSVRC by Stephanie M. Townsend, PhD.   Additionally PreventConnect provided additional support to augment the assessment and include an examination of how innovations diffuse.

 This second phase of the NSVRC’s Prevention Assessment project focused on interviews with innovative prevention programs and a diffusion survey to document how innovations have spread throughout the sexual violence prevention field.  The emphasis of this assessment was on how programs are thinking about primary prevention and the processes that allowed innovation to develop.  This report contains findings from that assessment.

Podcasts conducted by PreventConnect with some of the programs interviewed for the report can be found in the following link:http://www.preventconnect.org/mail/newsletter/NSVRCNewsletter2012.html

The Year 1 report of the Prevention Assessment Project, released in 2011, can be found here.

http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/file/Projects_RPE_Updated_NSVRC_PreventionAssessmentYear1FinalReport.pdf

If you have question about this report or the prevention assessment project, please contact jgrove@nsvrc.org.

*Note: reposted from NSVRC.org

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The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) has published it’s survey on sexual violence and intimate partner violence.   The continuing incidents yearly, monthly, daily, and every minute may shock you.  They found that on average: 

24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States.

Annually that equals more than 12 million women and men.

More than 1 million women are raped in a year and over 6 million women and men are victims of stalking in a year.

These findings emphasize that sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence are important and widespread public health problems in the United States.  This would be considered an epidemic if a disease. 

 NISVS is an on¬going, nationally representative survey that assesses experiences of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence among adult women and men in the United States. It measures lifetime victimization for these types of violence as well as victimization in the 12 months prior to the survey. The survey goes beyond counting acts of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence by assessing the range of violence experienced by victims and the impact of that victimization. The report also includes the first ever simultaneous national and state-level prevalence estimates of these forms of violence for all states.

 Findings from the 2010 Summary Report will be available online

 http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/index.html

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Stalking: Know it, Name it, Stop it

January is National Stalking Awareness Month, a time to focus on a crime that affects

3.4 million victims a year.

1 This year’s theme—“Stalking: Know It. Name It. Stop It.”—challenges the nation to fight this dangerous crime by learning more about it.

Stalking is a crime in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, yet many victims and criminal justice professionals underestimate its seriousness and impact. In one of five cases, stalkers use weapons to harm or threaten victims,

2 and stalking is one of the significant risk factors for femicide (homicide of women) in abusive relationships.

3 Victims suffer anxiety, social dysfunction, and severe depression at much higher rates than the general population, and many lose time from work or have to move as a result of their victimization.

4Stalking is difficult to recognize, investigate, and prosecute. Unlike other crimes, stalking is not a single, easily identifiable crime but a series of acts, a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause that person fear. Stalking may take many forms, such as assaults, threats, vandalism, burglary, or animal abuse, as well as unwanted cards, calls, gifts, or visits. One in four victims reports that the stalker uses technology, such as computers, global positioning system devices, or hidden cameras, to track the victim’s daily activities.

5 Stalkers fit no standard psychological profile, and many stalkers follow their victims from one jurisdiction to another, making it difficult for authorities to investigate and prosecute their crimes.

Communities that understand stalking, however, can support victims and combat the crime.

If more people learn to recognize stalking, we have a better chance to protect victims and prevent tragedies.

Your local rape crisis or domestic violence center can offer information, resources, or help.

For additional resources to help promote National Stalking Awareness Month, please visit http://stalkingawarenessmonth.org  and www.ovw.usdoj.gov 

1 Baum et al.,

Stalking Victimization in the United States

, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,

Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/svus.pdf (accessed September 29, 2009).

2 Ibid.

3 Jacquelyn C. Campbell et al., “Risk Factors for Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results from a Multi-site Case Control Study,”

American Journal of Public Health

93 (2003): 7.

4 Ibid.

5 Baum,

Stalking Victimization in the United States.

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Remember My Name event by Richmond YWCA

October 27th
Remember My Name, 7PM, Monument Heights Church (corner of Monument and Libbie).

Remember My Name honors victims of domestic violence from our community and provides family members with the opportunity to speak on their behalf.

For information about submitting a name to the memorial or for general information about Remember My Name, please contact Casey Emery at cemery@ywcarichmond.org

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“Behind the Make-up” a play about Domestic Violence

For three nights only the women of “Behind the Makeup” Monologues will uncover the ugly truth in a theater production designed to raise awareness about the issue of domestic violence. This play, written by Jewell Medley, a local of Halifax County, and was inspired by Jewel’s own experience with of domestic violence.  When Jewell was 15 her mother was murdered by her husband, and after killing her mother, he turned the gun on himself.

Performances will be Friday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 2, at 3 p.m.

Tickets are available for purchase now at The Prizery box office (700 Bruce Street, South Boston, VA 24592) and they may also be purchased by phone at 434-572-8339 or online at http://www.prizery.com.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors.

Proceeds from this event benefit the Domestic Violence Program of Tri-County Community Action Agency, Inc.

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