Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to honor survivors of intimate partner violence through education and action. This has never been more important, as the isolation, stress, and economic hardships brought by the COVID -19 pandemic have exacerbated incidents of domestic violence.

The term “domestic violence” refers to violence between spouses or spousal abuse, but can also include cohabitants and non-married intimate partners. Domestic violence can happen to anyone, but its incidence varies widely across demographic groups. According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, women (I in 4) experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner at much higher rates than men (1 in 7).  Further, the evidence shows that the likelihood of experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) compounds with each additional subordinate status. For example, a 2005 survey by the Centers for Disease Control found that Native American women identified as having a lifetime history of IPV at a much greater rate (39%) than women from other racial and ethnic groups. Data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey reveals that more than half (54%) of transgender individuals experienced some form of IPV. That rate grows to 73% for transgender individuals who are Native American and to 83% for transgender individuals who are both Native American and people with disabilities. One in 7 women and 1 in 18 men have been stalked by an intimate partner to the point they felt very fearful or believed they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed.

Congress has designated October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month since 1989, but the commemoration has roots in the National Day of Unity, conceived in 1981 by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) to galvanize the battered women’s movement. At that time, violence against women and children in the domestic sphere was widely viewed as a private matter. Rape that occurred at the hands of a spouse was not criminalized in all 50 states until 1993.

In 1994, Congress passed the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the first comprehensive federal legislation designed to end violence against women, which focused on improving criminal justice responses to domestic violence and services to its victims. Subsequent reauthorizations of the Act have expanded and enhanced its protections and provisions regarding domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking; with an increased focus on access to services for communities of color, immigrant women, LGBT victims, victims with disabilities, Native American women, public housing residents, youth and college students.

The 2013 VAWA Reauthorization amended the Jeanne Clery Act under Section 304, the Campus Sexual Violence Act (“SaVE Act”) provision, to afford additional rights and protections to campus victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

The Campus SaVE Act, which became effective July 1, 2015, requires institutions to:

• Report domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, beyond crime categories the Clery Act already mandates and add national origin and gender identity to the hate crime categories reported;
• Adopt certain discipline procedures, such as for notifying purported victims of their rights; and ensuring due process for the “accuser” and “the accused;” and
• Offer “primary prevention and awareness programs directed at incoming students and new employees and ongoing prevention and awareness campaigns directed at all students and employees.

Sexual misconduct including dating and domestic violence are prohibited by Olympic College policy. The Vice President for Equity and Inclusion is the College’s Title IX Coordinator, charged with stopping, remedying, and preventing sexual misconduct. Their office administers sexual misconduct training to all new students and employees each quarter. Completion of that training helps ensure a safe and welcoming campus environment for all.