Administrative Organization
The Office on Violence Against Women is effective at coordinating the national strategy and delegating authority to the states to encourage an appropriate local response to intimate partner and sexual violence. Its independent status within the Department of Justice is a source of organizational strength in policy making and program administration. However, its imposition of intensive reporting requirements on grant recipients risks detracting from the national capacity to provide victim-centered services and develop effective enforcement strategies that combat intimate partner violence, sexual assault and stalking.
Planning
STOP grants facilitate planning and coordination of collaborative strategies to better serve
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STOP Program funding has made a meaningful impact on the ability of communities across the nation to serve victims and hold perpetrators accountable for violent crimes. STOP-funded programs have made progress in addressing the crimes of intimate partner and sexual violence, which has contributed to a decline in violent crimes against women since the program originated.
It is also reasonable to attribute some of the decline to VAWA’s 1994 criminalization of violence against women. During his efforts to pass the original VAWA legislation in the early 1990s, then-Senator Joseph Biden envisioned a society intolerant of any violence against women. Social values have changed considerably as a result of VAWA. Violence against women is no longer a private matter, nor is it legal or tolerated. VAWA legislation established an important social and legal boundary for intimate partner violence, and created much-needed resources for survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence. The reauthorized VAWA of 2013 extends those benefits to marginalized groups for which societal barriers have not yet been broken down. It is anticipated that the novel protections for American Indian women, immigrants, and the LGBT community will begin to benefit from the legislation and that they too will experience decreases in violence and
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In Michigan, service providers struggle to institutionalize meaningful systems change to benefit survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence (MDSVPTB, 2014). Significant societal barriers persist beyond the scope of the STOP Program in treating survivors and permanently ending the cycle of abuse. Survivors of intimate partner violence face considerable economic obstacles which exacerbate their already complex journey to recovery and self-sufficiency. Victims need access to treatment, transitional support services, and resources to achieve self-sufficiency. The STOP Program is just one of many tools required to end intimate partner and sexual violence in society. To permanently end the cycle of abuse, victims need assistance beyond what the STOP Program can