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  • Should Abusers Keep Their Guns? In These 13 States, Judges Choose.

    In four of the 13 states where judges have the power to deny domestic-violence abusers access to guns, arbitrarily applied standards lead to a patchwork of enforcement of the laws. A review of cases heard in Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, and South Dakota shows that outcomes depend more on the county in which a case is heard, or a particular judge's beliefs about guns, than on a consistent application of the laws' standards. In some cases, clear allegations of a dire threat did not win approval of a domestic protection order. In others, orders were granted without allegations that guns posed a threat.

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  • A Heavy Blow: The Pandemic's Impact on Domestic Violence

    Domestic Violence Intervention Services supports domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. Services include counseling, legal advocacy, and group meetings among others. A texting service allows people to subtly connect to advocates, which was crucial during COVID-19 lockdowns and certified interpreters are available. Services are tailored to special populations, like immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ survivors, individuals who are incarcerated, and rural populations. An intensive year-long intervention program works with convicted offenders to develop coping mechanisms and tools to change behaviors.

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  • The Free Hotline That's Saving Women's Lives by Disarming Dangerous Men

    The Calm Hotline takes calls from men in Bogotá, Colombia, in an effort to address the root causes of domestic violence: a culture of machismo. Four psychologists take emergency calls – about 700 calls came in the service's first month – and works to refer the callers to an eight-week "gender transformation program" that will attempt to change men's toxic attitudes that can lead to violence. The program is patterned on a counseling hotline in the Colombian city of Barrancabermeja that was associated with a steep decline in domestic violence.

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  • Outside/In: Everybody Knows Somebody

    The story of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act starts with a young legal aide to Sen. Joe Biden who did not identify as a feminist and knew little about the issues, but whose methodical building of a coalition and a set of arguments led to the historic passage of the law in 1994. VAWA was the first U.S. federal law to address comprehensively the ancient problem of gender-based violence. A key provision, authorizing federal civil lawsuits by victims, helped many women for six years until the Supreme Court struck it down. The law's other effects, still ongoing, include funding victim-aid groups.

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  • How a new approach to fighting domestic violence is changing lives in Burundi

    A grassroots movement in Burundi has resulted in more familial bliss for households who suffered from domestic abuse. Through CARE International, a group of Burundian men are taking on toxic masculinity, entrenched cultural misogyny, and "destructive gender roles" through community meetings. Previously abusive men speak to their communities about how and why they were able to break the cycle and how their families have benefitted from a better home environment, better relationships, and even the benefit of being able to make and save more money as a result of helping their wives, instead of abusing them.

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  • La lutte contre les violences domestiques change des vies au Burundi

    Abatangamuco est un groupe d’hommes burundais qui utilisent les représentations théâtrales, les témoignages personnels, et les consultations individuelles pour changer les idées culturelles sur les violences domestiques. Avec plus de 8 000 hommes dans neuf provinces, le mouvement s'appuie sur les relations communautaires et les gouvernements locaux.

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  • Domestic violence survivor creates app to help others in crisis

    A free mobile app, Safe House, gives victims of domestic abuse a simple and quick way to call for help and find needed resources in four states. Putting local crisis helplines, shelters, and other local resources in one place saves time when an abuse victim is racing to get to safety. The app, downloaded more than 3,000 times since its launch less than two years ago, currently covers resources in Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. Its developer plans to expand to more states.

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  • Joe Biden Should Stop Bragging About the Violence Against Women Act

    The Violence Against Women Act was billed as a way to make a patriarchal society, and policing profession in particular, take domestic violence more seriously. It encouraged policies making arrest of alleged abusers mandatory, even to the point of punishing victims who refused to cooperate in prosecutions. This has backfired on many victims, especially women of color who distrust police and their punitive approaches to solving family problems. The law also prioritizes punitive approaches in its awarding of federal grants, thus denying victim aid to women who do not wish to cooperate with arrests.

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  • Two years in, Maryland leads most other states in use of ‘red flag' gun law

    Two years after Maryland adopted a law allowing for court orders denying gun access to people at high risk of harming themselves or others, police and the public have invoked the law far more often than in most states with similar laws. It is difficult to prove that domestic-violence assaults or suicides have been prevented. But advocates and law enforcement officials say they have seen that effect. Research has documented that extreme-risk protection orders, as such laws are known, can prevent suicides. Credit for the law's use goes to police training and 24/7 court access for emergency hearings.

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  • This police officer has made it her mission to end domestic violence

    In southern Louisiana's Lafourche Parish, sheriff's deputy Valerie Martinez Jordan used her history as a domestic violence victim to create a countywide program to legally seize the guns of people convicted of domestic violence or whose gun rights are suspended under a protective order. The program, since expanded statewide by legislation she inspired, took more than 200 guns out of circulation in her parish alone since last year and is credited with preventing any domestic homicides by people disarmed through her program's efforts.

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