|
Women and Violence: A Rochester,
NY Area
Community Survey
Prepared by:
Barbara Kasper, M.A., M.S.W.
Carmen Aponte, Ph.D.
Assistant Professors of Social Work
SUNY College at Brockport, NY
September 19, 1994
Introduction
National
public policy and media attention to the growing problem of
violence tends to interpret violence as "street violence." Violence
is therefore seen as a largely urban phenomena - teen homicide,
drive-by shootings, illegal drug activity and inner city gangs.
While these forms of violence are real and troubling, a whole other
sphere of violence is not typically considered in the public
definition - violence against women and girls.
Locally, there are several examples of how violence against women
has been excluded:
 |
The Rochester Mayor's Office
published a report in 1992 titled, "The Will to
Reduce Violence." The report included nine policy
recommendations to help eliminate violence in our
community. This task force has been revitalized
and efforts are underway to see how the policy
recommendations can be implemented. Yet none of
the recommendations recognize incest, domestic
violence and sexual assault as worthy of special
attention. |
|
|
In the spring of 1994, The
Democrat and Chronicle/R News sponsored a
telephone survey focused on crime and violence in
our community. In its definition of major crime,
the only form of violence against women included
was rape. Although auto theft was included in the
report, domestic violence was not. |
|
|
In July of 1994, much of the
Rochester community rallied to join the month-long
Challenge Against Violence. Although this was a
worthy endeavor and considered to be largely
successful, neither sexual assault nor domestic
violence was part of the city's agenda. Once
again, "violence" seemed to be defined in a way
that excluded specific crimes against women. |
|
|
In the summer of 1993, Women Against a Violent Environment
conducted a survey of Rochester area women. WAVE wanted to give a
voice to women because many crimes against women are unreported. The
survey found that women's fears are well-founded and fueled by their
real experiences _ not from seeing frightening stories in the media.
We also found that the very fear of these crimes restricts and
structures women's lives in several ways. |
We must stop violence in all of its forms. But violence against
women is too often ignored. And our survey results make it clear
that we do not need to look to the murder of Nicole Simpson to bring
these crimes to light. We would like our community leaders as well
as the media to focus as much attention on violence against women as
they have on other forms of crime.
This report is dedicated to the 781 local women who shared their
experiences with us.
WAVE (Women Against a Violent Environment) was formed in
November, 1992. The initial purpose of the group was to raise
concern about the unsolved murders of 14 Rochester area women.
However, as the group continued to meet, this concern expanded to a
more global interest in violence against women. In order to document
this problem in the community, WAVE constructed a survey to assess
the experience of violence in women's lives as well as what women do
to feel safer.
Surveys were distributed from April through August, 1993. They
were gathered from many sources, including the following:
|
|
several African American
churches |
|
|
staff and program consumers
from some area social service agencies, including:
Family Services of Rochester, Hillside Children's
Center, Monroe County Department of Social
Services, the Y.W.C.A., Sojourner Hall for Women, and others |
|
|
several employees of Rochester
Telephone Company and Kodak |
|
|
some patrons of public
libraries in Monroe County |
|
|
some students from SUNY
Brockport |
|
|
direct mailing to each name on
WAVE mailing list |
|
|
the Greater Rochester Chapter
of the National Organization for Women mailing
list |
In addition, some WAVE members distributed surveys downtown
during lunchtime to women workers who volunteered to participate. In
general, distribution was often a "grassroots" effort, with many
women taking them to their friends, relatives and co-workers. The
following report is based on the responses of the 781 women who
volunteered to complete the questionnaires.
Participant Profile
Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 66 years or older, with the
majority being between 25 and 50 years-old. Most of the participants
lived with at least one other adult (66.7%). Most of those surveyed
lived in the city (44.2%), while 38.8% lived in the suburbs and
13.2% lived in rural areas. The majority of the respondents
identified themselves as Caucasian (64.9%), and 21.1% were African
American. 3.6% of the women were Hispanic. The remaining 3%
identified themselves as Asian or bi-racial. About half of the
Caucasian women lived in the suburbs (51.3%) and the majority of the
minority women lived in the city (72.9%).
Continue to survey findings.
|
