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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
Survey Results Compared with Other Research on Violence Against
Women and Girls
Although this was not a random study, our results do not appear
to be biased in such a way that would indicate that only women who
have been victimized volunteered to complete the surveys.
The pioneering 1978 Russell San Francisco Survey (1984) of 930
women found that 24% of the respondents had experienced completed
rape. A 1987 study of 604 women in Toronto by Michael Smith (1994)
revealed that 40% of the women interviewed suffered an assault by a
male nonstranger and 20% suffered an assault by a male stranger one
or more times during adulthood. Kilpatrick et al. (1990) found a 23%
rate of completed sexual assault in their study of 2,004 women
residents of Charleston County, South Carolina. A 1990 survey of
4,450 women by Ms. Magazine (Seery and Clossick, 1991) revealed that
12% of the respondents had been raped by a husband or partner and
23% were raped by an acquaintance. Six percent were raped by a
stranger.
The National Victim Center states that only 16% of rape victims
report the rape to police. Biaggio et al. (in Swisher and Wekesser,
1994) found that only 4.4 % of the women they surveyed reported
being sexually assaulted to the police.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (1993) reports
that more than 50% of all women will experience some form of
violence from their spouses during marriage. Reported rates for wife
abuse in two large surveys were 28% (Straus et al., 1980) and 21% (Shulman,
1979). The Family Violence Prevention Fund (1993) reports on a
national survey which found that 14% of the respondents admitted to
having been violently abused by their husband or boyfriend. The Ms.
survey found that 29% of the women respondents said they were
battered by a spouse or lover.
The National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse (1993) found
that 27% of reported cases of child abuse and neglect, involved
physical abuse and 17% involved sexual abuse. The Russell study
(1983) of women living in San Francisco found that 38% of all of the
women in the sample were sexually victimized by age 18. A study of
82 women by Frazier and Cohen (1992) found a childhood victimization
rate of 26%. Kilpatrick and Best (1990) found in their national
study that 25% of all women reported being victimized before age 11
and 36% between ages 11 and 17.
Women Against a Violent Environment calls for the following
actions:
1. Pro-active enforcement of the recently passed mandatory arrest
policy. Vigorous prosecution of those arrested is also essential.
Violence in the home must be dealt with in the same manner as
violence on the street. Family violence is not a private affair.
2. County funding of $45,000 per year is required for the Court
Advocacy for Battered Women Program as drafted by Alternatives for
Battered Women, a collaborative with the Legal Aid Society of
Rochester.
3. Uniform implementation of the new state law, effective in
June, that requires law enforcement officers to serve Orders of
Protection. Serving orders is no longer the responsibility of the
domestic violence victim.
4. Police training on sensitivity to the needs of domestic
violence victims should utilize the input and expertise of local
agencies in the field of domestic violence. In addition to the newly
mandated training on working with domestic violence victims for
police officers, investigators, and courtroom personnel, similar
training on working with victims of sexual assault should be
required on a repeated and regular basis. It should include input
from local providers of service to sexual assault victims.
5. Uniform enforcement of the Fair Treatment Standards Act that
allows victims of sexual assault an advocate of their choosing
during any contact in any criminal justice proceeding.
6. Continued efforts in the investigation of the murders of 19
women in Rochester whose killer or killers have not been arrested.
7. Reporting by the media of crimes of violence against women
with sensitivity and accuracy, and in a manner which reflects the
frequency of their occurrence. Our survey demonstrates how
widespread violence against women is in our community. Secrecy,
shame and ignorance associated with these crimes is reinforced by
the lack of public attention.
8. Increased funding and expansion of Monroe County's Preventive
Services to provide counseling and other necessary services for
child sexual abuse victims and other children at risk of foster care
placement due to family violence. Support the Rochester Children's
Collaborative and its recommendations.
9. Mandatory self defense classes for girls in secondary
education. 86% of the women surveyed by WAVE had never taken a self
defense course. Although this will not stop violence, it will better
prepare young women to protect themselves against it.
10. Amendment of the Task Force on Violence Policy and Program
Recommendations to specifically include women. 52% of Rochester area
women surveyed by WAVE have been affected by male violence in their
lives. For example, Policy Recommendation #8 should read: "The
community must acknowledge and address the significant disparities
in family income, employment, education, housing, treatment by the
justice system, and other realities encountered by women, African
Americans, and Hispanic citizens in metropolitan Rochester." The
roles poverty and racial oppression play in the promotion of
violence are acknowledged; however, the role of gender is ignored in
all of the Task Force's policy recommendations.
We urge our state representatives to support the following:
1. State bills A. 3454 and S. 3478 which would mandate that domestic
violence be considered in determining child custody and unsupervised
visitation. Children must be protected from a known perpetrator of
violence. Judges often assume that the beating of one parent by the
other is not detrimental to the child and is irrelevant to the
child's best interest. But research indicates that over 50% of
battering spouses will abuse their children as well. In addition,
studies show that the abuse of one parent by the other is harmful to
children whether the child is physically abused or not.
2. Extend the statute of limitation for sexual offenses against
children. Amend the Criminal Procedure Law to eliminate the need for
specific dates of occurrence for acts of sexual conduct committed
against infants and minors. The State Senate passes this bill last
year, and the Assembly has it this year.
3. State bills A. 11508 and S. 8198 which would create a fatality
review board to provide a mechanism for reviewing cases involving
deaths of victims of family offenses who were complainants in Family
Court or involved in Criminal Court proceedings. Nearly 200 women
are killed each year in New York State as a result of domestic
violence. This review board would provide valuable information on
where the weaknesses lie within the criminal justice system.
4. State bill S. 8738 which would prohibit discrimination by
insurers based on evidence of, or exposure to, domestic violence in
an insured's household. Many insurance companies are denying or
canceling coverage to individuals because of exposure to domestic
violence. Exposure to criminal behavior does not constitute a
preexisting condition. This is a dangerous trend and it must be
stopped.
Continue to survey references.
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