Thirty years after the Violence Against Women Act

Diane Rehm: On My Mind

WAMU 88.5

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🗓️ 10 October 2024

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

It’s been thirty years since Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act. This set of laws revolutionized the way we think about – and deal with – abuse between intimate partners.

While advocates celebrate progress made, they worry we might be starting to head in the wrong direction. A recent study showed reduced access to reproductive care can increase risk for women in abusive relationships. Meanwhile, conservatives like vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance have spoken out against no-fault divorce, a proven tool for women to leave potentially dangerous marriages.

Rachel Louise Snyder is a journalist who has covered the issue of domestic violence for years. Her 2019 book “No Visible Bruises” looked at the question of when abuse becomes not just dangerous, but deadly.

Snyder joins Diane to take stock of progress made over the last three decades to address intimate partner violence, and the work left to do.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi it's Diane on my mind domestic violence in America. It's been 30 years since Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act.
0:18.0	This set of laws revolutionized the way we think about and deal with abuse between intimate partners.
0:27.0	While advocates celebrate progress made,
0:31.0	they worry we might be heading in the wrong direction.
0:35.0	A recent study showed reduced access to reproductive care can increase risk.
0:43.0	While conservatives like vice presidential candidate
0:48.0	JD Vance have spoken out against nofull divorce, a proven tool for women to leave abusive marriages.
0:59.4	I'm going to choose to stay positive and say yes I think we are on the right track.
1:07.0	Rachel Louise Snyder is author of the 2019 book No Visible Bruises.
1:15.0	She joins me to take stock of progress made and work left to do.
1:32.0	Rachel, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, remindinder us of what that Act did or was supposed to do.
1:39.0	It did, I mean, maybe the biggest and most important thing it did was put a spotlight on domestic
1:46.1	violence and say, this is not going to be okay anymore and make it part of a national conversation.
1:52.4	You know, it came in the same year came within
1:55.1	months of the OJ Simpson trial and so those two things that like having that trial
2:08.2	be a visual of what the Violence Against Women Act was trying to do, I think was incredibly powerful.
2:10.8	And advocates and activists that I've talked to for years really point to those two things as just a sea change when it came to domestic violence.
2:21.0	So that's what it did in a kind of spiritual sense I think for the country.
2:25.0	On the ground it created funds to create the National Domestic Violence
2:31.0	Hotline. It created funding for shelters. It created
2:35.6	victims compensation funds. It just did. It really just changed everything. It created state-level hotlines as well. So it was, it just gave voice and money to the problem of domestic violence.
2:54.0	So since then, fast forward to now,
	...

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