AARA Extends Unemployment Benefits for DV Victims

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) included several provisions for modernizing state unemployment insurance systems, such as providing access to unemployment insurance benefits to various groups who were not previously covered by state laws, including victims of domestic violence. Under ARRA, the federal government provided incentive payments to states that chose to [...]

September 2009 Report: Females Murdered by Males

When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of Homicide Data – Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim, Single Offender Incidents, Violence Policy Center, Washington, DC.
2007 Data, September 2009 Report
Excerpts from the report:
One federal study on homicide among intimate partners found that female intimate partners are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than all [...]

Indian Law Resource Center Launches New Site

Violence Against Native Women Violates Human Rights is a new website launched by the Indian Law Resource Center in coordination with the National Congress of American Indians. The website discusses how to use international advocacy to end violence against Native American women. 
How can international advocacy reduce violence against Native American Women?

Attorney General Eric Holder on Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Excerpts from remarks by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Full text
. . . . Last year, there were over a half million non-fatal violent victimizations committed against women age 12 or older by an intimate partner. And more than 2,000 women and men were killed by intimate partners last year. [...]

No One is a Stereotype: How Survivors Inspire Each Other

http://www.ndvh.org/2009/10/no-one-is-a-stereotype-how-survivors-inspire-each-other/
National Domestic Violence Hotline has a post by Leslie Morgan Stiener, author of the book Crazy Love, a memoir about domestic abuse.
For a long time after I left Conor, I struggled with how I fit our society’s stereotype of an abused woman. Exactly why and how had I lost myself to a man who I was [...]

Immigrant Survivors of Abuse

http://www.womensenews.org/story/domestic-violence/091009/immigrant-survivors-abuse-seek-freedom
Women’s eNews has a two-part series called Immigrant Survivors of Abuse: Seeking Freedom.
Clenching her fist, she said she was scared of being deported and was petrified of her abuser. She found herself locked in a labyrinth of helplessness.
 

Start Strong Teens: The generation that ends DV

From their website:
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. On October 22nd Start Strong teens will be showing their commitment to being the generation that ENDS domestic violence.
On this one day, Start Strong teens will be leading events across the country and “taking it to the streets,” from street performances in Providence to an anti-violence fashion [...]

Baghdad’s Underground Shelters Help Iraqi Women Escape Violence and Abuse

by Anna Badkhen, from Ms.
Source and full story: Utne Reader
On a bullet-scarred side street in Baghdad’s downtown, where U.S. Marines famously helped tear down the statue of Saddam Hussein in April of 2003, an inconspicuous entryway tucked between a steel-shuttered shop and a rickety candy stall leads to a flight of steep concrete stairs. Rusted [...]

New study finds partner abuse leads to wide range of health problems

Source
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Women abused by intimate partners suffer higher rates of a wide variety of doctor-diagnosed medical maladies compared to women who were never abused, according to a new study of more than 3,000 women.
Many of these health problems are not commonly understood as being associated with violence, such as abdominal pain, chest [...]

News: Violence against women in military and war

Oct. 7
Yesterday, by a 68-30 vote, the U.S. Senate passed Senator Al Franken’s amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill (Amendment 2588) that, according to Stop Family Violence, prevents the Defense Department from using contractors that require“mandatory employment arbitration of employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault claims.” Franken’s amendment was a response to [...]

Book: If I Die In Juárez

If I Die in Juárez by Stella Pope Duarte

From the red-light districts in Ciudad Juárez to remote villages hidden away in the mountains of Chihuahua comes a tale of one of the darkest crimes to be recorded in the history of humankind. If I Die in Juárez traces the lives of three young women—Evita, a [...]

Commemoration of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women

Ottawa, Ontario (October 4, 2009) – The following statement was released by the Honourable Rob Nicholson, Minister of Justice, the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, the Honourable Peter Van Loan, Minister of Public Safety and the Honourable Helena Guergis, Minister of State [...]

Voices of Our Sisters in Spirit

The Sisters In Spirit initiative is a multi-year research, education and policy initiative funded by Status of Women Canada. The initiative is designed to address the disturbing numbers of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada. Through the Sisters In Spirit initiative, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) aims to better understand [...]

Updates from Pretty Bird Woman House

Pretty Bird Woman House reviews some of their recent history and talks about the impact of the Office on Violence Against Women and the services provided by this program at Standing Rock Reservation.
Pretty Bird Woman House Blog

Urban vs. rural domestic violence

Urban vs. rural domestic violence
by Andrew Clevenger

As our friends at The Rural Blog have pointed out, a new study out of the University of Kentucky highlights how domestic violence protective orders are less effective in rural areas than in urban centers.
The study, by UK professor TK Logan, concludes that while domestic violence occurs at similar [...]

Economic Stress and Domestic Violence

Applied Research Forum In Brief: Economic Stress and Domestic Violence (September 2009)
Access the full report in .pdf or html format
www.vawnet.org
National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women
 In Brief: Economic Stress and Domestic Violence
The severe economic recession that began in December 2007 has renewed interest in the relationship between economic stress and domestic violence (DV). Although [...]

When leaving is lethal

Source: St. Louis Beacon
When leaving is lethal: Recent murders show separation can be dangerous when partner is abusive
By Nancy Larson, Special to the Beacon
Sun. Sept. 27 – By piling her four children into the family van as usual on Friday morning, Sept. 18, 27-year-old Melissa Amerson of St. Louis made a deadly [...]

Missing women found buried near Albuquerque

Story by Women’s eNews
Summary of article: After combing an almost 100-acre area on the outskirts of Albuquerque, investigators found the remains of 11 women, one of whom was four months pregnant. As of late-September, seven of the 11 women have been identified.
All had been reported missing between 2003 and early 2005. Each had [...]

Women warriors take on domestic violence and sexual assault

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/59339272.html
By Tanya Lee, Today correspondent
Sep 18, 2009
From North Dakota to Arizona, strong, talented, accomplished Native American women are taking up the challenge of protecting themselves and their sisters, their mothers and aunts, their grandmothers and granddaughters, from the devastation of domestic violence and sexual assault.
The level of violence against women and children in the U.S. [...]

Saving the World’s Women

Saving the World’s Women
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF and SHERYL WuDUNN, New York Times
August 17, 2009
In the 19th Century, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and [...]