April 2012 - Save - Leading The Policy Movement For Fairness and Due Process On Campus

Contact: Teri Stoddard
Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

Battering the Truth: SAVE Report Reveals Many Abuse Statistics are One-Sided or False

Washington, DC/April 11, 2012 — The federal government spends $76 million a year for domestic violence education programs, but 90 percent of the claims made in these programs are one-sided, misleading, or completely untrue, according to a new report from Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE). The report, “Most DV Educational Programs Lack Accuracy, Balance, and Truthfulness,” compares validated scientific research with the claims made by leading abuse-reduction groups: http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/SAVE-DV-Educational-Programs

The SAVE report highlights three offenders:

The American Bar Association frames its discussion of domestic violence with the broad claim that “2 to 4 million American women are battered every year.” But the dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Work derides that statistic as a “factoid from nowhere.”
The National Network to End Domestic Violence, an umbrella organization for state domestic violence advocates, has developed a fact sheet on “Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Fact Sheet.” Only five of the 30 statements contained in the NNEDV fact sheet are accurate and truthful representations of the social science.
Judicial benchbooks, used by judges as summaries of current law and key information on a subject, are similarly skewed. Various states’ manuals present the statistic that 95 percent of spouse-abuse victims are women. In fact, men are equally as likely as women to be victims of intimate partner aggression: http://www.saveservices.org/pdf/Seven-Facts-Every-American-Should-Know-About-DV.pdf.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which funds many of these educational efforts, has been criticized for having inadequate safeguards against waste and fraud: http://saveservices.org/pdf/SAVE-Accountability-and-Oversight.pdf.

SAVE has declared that such false claims are doing harm to victims of domestic violence. By imprinting a false picture of domestic violence on Americans’ understanding of the issue, the domestic violence establishment hampers outreach to male, LGBT, and other underserved victims.

Spokesman Philip W. Cook says of the report’s findings: “VAWA must not be reauthorized without a remedy for the damage this misinformation is doing to domestic violence victims and to our system of justice. The biases we are talking about are systematic, widespread, and doggedly resistant to correction.”

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org.

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard
Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

$1.2 Million in Anti-Violence Funds Embezzled, Missing, or Misused: Fraud is Widespread, SAVE Charges

Washington, DC/April 4, 2012 – Following release of three reports by the Department of Justice, Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) is charging that many grants made under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) are plagued by fraud and waste. Such malfeasance shortchanges the vulnerable victims of partner abuse.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued three reports in March highlighting the problem:

1. A March 28 press release announced the sentencing of Julie and Andrea Matau for embezzlement of funds from a VAWA grant. From 2005 to 2007, the mother and daughter pair stole $159,763 in federal money from their American Samoa legal services corporation, which had received $1.2 million in VAWA-related grants. http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/March/12-crm-386.html

2. A DOJ audit of the Virgin Islands Law Enforcement Planning Commission reported that $847,553 in funds awarded by the Office of Violence Against Women were found to be questionable. Of this amount, $372,434 of expenditures had no records to document how the money had been spent. http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2012/g4012001.pdf

3. An audit of VAWA grants to the Coeur d’Alene Native American tribe’s domestic violence program revealed $240,431 had been improperly spent, including $171,000 in salary for an unapproved position. http://www.justice.gov/oig/grants/2012/g6012008.pdf

Each year VAWA awards $500 million in grants to abuse-reduction organizations, but fiscal management practices have been found to be sub-standard. A SAVE report documents long-standing problems of fraud and abuse. http://saveservices.org/pdf/SAVE-Accountability-and-Oversight.pdf

The SAVE report points out that the Office of Violence Against Women has not conducted comprehensive self-evaluations, in disregard of directives from the Government Accountability Office and Office of Management and Budget.

Says SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook: “Victims of domestic violence are ill-served by fraud and waste, especially on such a broad scale. Congress must assure the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act contains strong accountability measures that deny funding to rogue grantees that misuse taxpayer money.”

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org.