April 2, 1999

Insisting that the federal and local governments need to do more to combat the epidemic of violence against women and to protect its victims, Vice President Al Gore announced on February 26 that the federal government will provide $223 million in grant money to support antiviolence programs at the state and local levels.

"There is no greater affront to our laws, our families, or to the human spirit than domestic violence," Gore said, characterizing these acts as forms of "terror and abuse committed by a spouse or partner."

The grants will be distributed among three programs. The first is known as S.T.O.P. Violence Against Women Formula Grant. Administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, the S.T.O.P. (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors) initiative will receive about $138 million "to develop and strengthen the criminal justice system's response to violence against women and to support and enhance services for victims." The grant's structure will require that states receiving grant money allocate at least 25 percent to law enforcement, 25 percent to prosecuting accused domestic violence perpetrators, and 25 percent to victims' services.

The second segment of the new initiative will forward $23 million to 32 states and five territories to help them to integrate their efforts to fight domestic violence into coordinated, comprehensive programs. According to a statement from Gore's office, these funds can be used for "implementing mandatory or pro-arrest programs and policies; developing policies and training in criminal justice agencies; improving tracking of domestic violence cases; and creating centralized domestic violence units consisting of police, prosecutors, and the judiciary or other criminal justice agencies."

Unfortunately, in many states police officers fail to arrest abusers, even when confronted with battered and bleeding victims, and are unequipped to provide other intervention services, psychiatrist Deborah Cross, M.D., chair of the APA Committee on Women, told Psychiatric News. Even in states that have laws requiring police to arrest batterers, "the law is honored more in the breach than in reality," she noted. It is also important to increase the penalty for batterers and not sweep the problem under the rug because it makes people uncomfortable, she said.

The third group of grant beneficiaries consists of programs that protect women who have been victims of violence. The Department of Health and Human Services will funnel more than $62 million to states, which will then distribute the money among local agencies and programs that shelter women once they have been the targets of domestic abuse. The services for which these funds can be used include counseling, legal advocacy, emergency support for food and transportation, referral to other services, community education, and services to the men who have battered their partners.

The size of the women's shelter grants, which are based on a state's population, ranges from $400,000 for 17 smaller states to nearly $7 million for California, the most populous state.

The grants are well targeted, since the problem of domestic violence is much larger than many people realize, Cross emphasized. "Even though there has been lots of education about how to identify domestic violence in the last decade or so, especially in the health care professions, follow-up education about options open to these women, such as shelters and hotlines, has been nearly absent," Cross told Psychiatric News.

She cautioned, however, that just sending money to a list of shelter programs is not an adequate solution. The government "has to look carefully at what's being done with the money. It must go to deserving programs that have shown they can effectively deal with the problems these women face," Cross said.

For example, expanding shelters located in easily accessible downtown or suburban areas is not the best use of these grants, she noted. To offer genuine protection to these terrified women, shelters must be located where the victims can feel secure that the man who abused them cannot easily find them. The most dangerous time for battered women is soon after they finally leave their abusive partner.

Though not part of the expanded grant program, Gore also announced that he wants Attorney General Janet Reno to evaluate the problem of "cyber stalking"-repeatedly using e-mail or the Internet to harass or threaten people. "Make no mistake," Gore said, "this kind of harassment can be as frightening and as real as being followed and watched in your neighborhood or in your home."

Reno is to report her findings and proposals for fighting this growing problem in 90 days.