Senate Passes Resolutions to Address Violence Against Women

Stalking Awareness

On January 31, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, a resolution (S. Res. 360) designating January 2012 as “National Stalking Awareness Month.”

Sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the resolution is intended to raise awareness and encourage prevention of stalking. It contains a number of findings, including:

• One in six, or 19.2 million, women in the United States have at some point during their lifetime experienced stalking victimization, during which they felt very fearful or believed that they, or someone close to them, would be harmed or killed;
• Eleven percent of victims reported having been stalked for more than five years, and 23 percent of victims reported having been stalked almost every day;
• One in four victims reported that stalkers had used email, instant messaging, blogs, bulletin boards, Internet sites, chat rooms, or other forms of electronic monitoring against them, and one in 13 victims reported that stalkers had used electronic devices to monitor them;
• Approximately one in eight employed victims of stalking missed work because they feared for their safety or were taking steps to protect themselves, such as by seeking a restraining order;
• As many as 75 percent of women in college who experience stalking-related behavior experience other forms of victimization, including sexual or physical victimization, or both;
• Stalking affects victims of every race, age, culture, gender, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, and economic status;
• There is a need to improve the response of the criminal justice system to stalking through more aggressive investigation and prosecution;
• There is a need for increased availability of victim services across the United States, and such services must include programs tailored to meet the needs of stalking victims.

The Senate finds that “National Stalking Awareness Month” provides an opportunity to educate the people of the United States about stalking. The resolution “encourages policymakers, criminal justice officials, victim service and human service agencies, college campuses and universities, and nonprofit organizations to increase awareness of stalking and the availability of services for stalking victims and urges national and community organizations, businesses in the private sector, and the media to promote awareness of the crime of stalking through “National Stalking Awareness Month.”

Teen Dating Violence

On January 31, the Senate also approved, by unanimous consent, a resolution (S. Res. 362) designating February 2012 as “National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.”

Sponsored by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-IN), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:

• According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence survey recently conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of victimization starts early in life, as most victims of rape and intimate partner violence first experience such violence before age 24;
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly ten percent of high school students have been hit, slapped, or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend during the past year;
• A violent relationship in adolescence can have serious ramifications for the victim, putting the victim at higher risk for substance abuse, eating disorders, risky sexual behavior, suicide, and adult victimization;
• Being physically or sexually abused makes teenage girls up to six times more likely to become pregnant and more than twice as likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease;
• According to the Liz Claiborne Inc. 2009 Parent/Teen Dating Violence Poll, although 82 percent of parents are confident that they could recognize the signs that their child was experiencing dating abuse, a majority of parents, or 58 percent, could not correctly identify all the warning signs of dating abuse;
• According to a National Crime Prevention Council survey, 43 percent of middle and high school students reported experiencing cyberbullying during the past year;
• One in four teens in a relationship report having been called names, harassed, or put down by a partner through the use of a cell phone, including through texting;
• Three in ten young people have “sexted,” [the act of sending sexually explicit materials through cell phones] and 61 percent of young people who have sexted report being pressured to do so at least once;
• According to the Liz Claiborne Inc. 2010 College Dating Violence and Abuse Poll, 43 percent of college women who date report experiencing violent and abusive dating behavior;
• Primary prevention programs are a key part of addressing teen dating violence, and successful examples of such programs include education, community outreach, and social marketing campaigns that are culturally appropriate.

The resolution finds that the establishment of “National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month” will benefit schools, communities, and families regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or sex and “calls upon the people of the United States, including young people, parents, schools, law enforcement officials, state and local officials, and interested groups to observe National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month with appropriate programs and activities that promote awareness and prevention of teen dating violence in their communities.”