Girls Against Boys
Ending bias in domestic assault law
Online
July 26, 2005
Cathy Young
Last week, with international terrorism still the center of attention, the
Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on a different kind of domestic
security issue: the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The
legislation, which funds programs aiding victims of sexual assault and family
violence, is the kind of measure no one wants to oppose for fear of appearing
insensitive or even antiwoman. But maybe now, 11 years after the passage of the
original measure, is a good time to reevaluate some of its premises and
policies.
The act, first introduced by Democratic Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and later
championed by some leading conservatives such as Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch
(R-Utah), could be seen an example of positive and mainstream feminist
accomplishment. But underneath its mainstream trappings, the 1994 bill was
steeped in a radical feminism of the "men bad, women good" variety-an
ideology which regards domestic abuse and rape as part of a collective male war
against women. Ironically, the law's political success was partly due to the
fact this kind of feminism dovetails easily with a traditional,
putting-women-on-a-pedestal paternalism.
Despite its ideological origins and its reliance on inflated statistics (such as
the long-debunked claim that "battering is the single largest cause of
injury to women in the US"), the act has undoubtedly done some good.
Reauthorized in 2000, it contained many beneficial practical measures in the
area of victim services and criminal justice: For instance, making restraining
orders issued in one state enforceable in another and subjecting abusers to
federal charges if they cross state lines to stalk or assault victims. It also
encouraged some solid research on domestic violence, sexual assault, and related
issues.
Unfortunately, it also helped enshrine a dogmatic and one-sided approach to
family violence. For one, while the legislation is ostensibly gender-neutral,
its very title reflects the notion that partner abuse is a "women's
issue"-leading, in some cases, to confusion over whether programs serving
male victims are even eligible for grant money. At last week's hearings, the
issue of abused men was explicitly acknowledged. According to Dave Burroughs, a
Maryland-based activist on behalf of male victims who did not testify but
attended the session, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)
specifically questioned a witness on the availability of services for men and
noted that according to federal crime surveys, 12 percent of domestic assault
victims are male. (In other studies that do not focus on whether the respondent
regards the attack as a crime, that figure goes up to about 40 percent.)
In fact, some aspects of the act promote covert gender bias. For instance, the
legislation requires states and jurisdictions eligible for federal domestic
violence grants not only to encourage arrests in domestic assault cases, but
also to discourage dual arrest of the offender and the victim. This provision is
based on the false belief that in cases of mutual violence, one can nearly
always draw a clear line between the aggressor and the victim striking back in
self-defense. While the language is ostensibly gender-neutral, the assumption is
that the aggressor is male; the feminist groups which pushed for this clause
made no secret of the fact that its goal was to curb arrests of women.
The law has also created a symbiotic relationship between the federal government
and the battered women's advocacy movement, which is heavily permeated by
radical feminist ideology. The state coalitions against domestic violence, which
formally require member organizations to embrace the feminist analysis of abuse
as patriarchal coercion, play a vital role in the allocation of federal grants
and in overseeing the implementation of programs and policies. Among other
things, these groups frown on any batterer intervention programs that focus on
drug and alcohol abuse or mental illness as causes of domestic violence.
Here are two modest proposals for reauthorizing the measure. First, give the
legislation a gender-neutral title such as "The Family Violence and Sexual
Assault Prevention Act." Second, abolish the special role of
feminist-dominated domestic violence coalitions in shaping federally funded
domestic violence programs. The bill should direct each state to create a
domestic violence board on which no more than a quarter or a third of the seats
can be filled by members of battered women's advocacy groups. The rest should be
filled by scholars, mental health professionals, and community activists. Over
the past decades, our understanding of domestic violence has expanded beyond
feminist orthodoxy to a more complex view. Our federal policies should reflect
this ideological diversity.
Cathy Young is a Reason contributing editor. This column originally appeared in
the Boston Globe
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