Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco.Photo: the department of justice
In the below column ahead of her testimony to the Senate on Tuesday, Monaco looks back on the important lessons learned from the bill’s passage and calls on Congress to reauthorize it — ensuring needed updates and funding — after a 2019 lapse.
In the early 1990s, I began my 20-plus-year career in government service as a staff member for then-U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee ChairmanJoe Biden. I was in my mid-20s and eager to learn more about public service when I was assigned to work on the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) — a landmark law that has dramatically changed the way our country protects survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, affecting the lives of countless women in America. Little did I know, it would change my life, as well.
Working on that committee three decades ago, I learned from survivors themselves why America needs the Violence Against Women Act. I read and responded to countless letters from survivors all over the country — mostly women — who wrote in heart-wrenching detail about the brutal violence and excruciating pain that they were suffering at the hands of their intimate partners.
My colleagues and I spent many hours calling staff at rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, emergency rooms and police stations across the country. We learned from them that perpetrators of this violence were not being held accountable. The statistics we gathered from that time period painted a grim picture: 98 percent of rape survivors never saw their attacker caught, tried, and imprisoned — meaning almost all perpetrators of rape walked free. Fewer than half of people arrested for rape were convicted and almost half of convicted rapists could expect to serve a year or less in jail.
The experience taught me a key principle that still guides me today: Our government has a moral obligation to protect its citizens, and when it falls short of doing that, it must listen to those it let down to learn how to do better. Members of Congress understood they needed to take sexual assault and domestic violence seriously and that the criminal justice system needed the necessary tools to hold perpetrators accountable. When VAWA passed overwhelmingly in September of 1994, Congress made clear that protecting women from violence was a national priority and would receive the full weight of the federal government’s attention and resources.
People gather for a vigil to remember women who lost their lives to violence on March 20 in Chicago.Scott Olson/Getty
The bill also placed an emphasis on a coordinated community-based response to domestic violence and encouraged actors in the criminal justice system to work with survivors and their advocates to find solutions. It provided legal relief for battered immigrants and created theNational Domestic Violence Hotline, which remains a vital resource today. And for the first time, the original VAWA provided critical federal funding to ensure that those who touch the lives of survivors — everyone from law enforcement to social services — have access to programs that provide the right tools and training.
When VAWA was passed with overwhelming support from Republicans and Democrats, it helped change the national conversation around sexual assault and domestic violence. It raised awareness of the problem and made clear that these crimes affect more than the immediate victim — they take a toll on children, on families and on our communities. In the years since, Congress has renewed the law three times with strong support from both sides of the political aisle, each time strengthening it to address current challenges. But the law was last renewed in 2013, and we have seen an uptick in domestic violence as a result of theCOVID-19 pandemic. In his fiscal year 2022 budget, President Biden requested an historic investment of $1 billion for VAWA programs and it is clear, that now more than ever, we need this level of funding to meet today’s challenges.
This year, a key priority of the Department of Justice is to reduce domestic violence homicides through federal firearms laws. Currently, if a couple is married or living together and one of them is convicted of domestic abuse, the law prohibits the perpetrator from owning a firearm. But if the couple is not living together or if they do not have children together, and one of them is convicted of abuse, the so-called “boyfriend loophole” means that there is no such prohibition on the perpetrator. This loophole leaves countless victims at risk and, as the president has made clear, we must close it.
Finally, we need this year’s bill to further invest in the vital VAWA grant programs that train law enforcement how to respond to survivors knowledgeably and compassionately in sexual assault or domestic violence situations. When survivors of this type of horrific violence take the courageous step of coming forward to report their abuse, they must be met with competent and compassionate professionals who have the resources, training, and institutional support to do their jobs well.
On Tuesday morning, I will return to the Senate Judiciary Committee to address the Violence Against Women Act again. This time, it will not be as a junior staffer helping to create it. Rather, I will return as the deputy attorney general of the United States to urge Congress to once again renew it. But one thing will remain the same: I am honored to be working on behalf of victims and survivors, without whose courage this law never would have been possible.
source: people.com
