Violence Against Women, Global

From the article:

Thousands of sexual assaults that occur in the United States every year are not reflected in the federal government’s yearly crime report because the report uses an archaic definition of rape that is far narrower than the definitions used by most police departments.

Many law enforcement officials and advocates for women say that this underreporting misleads the public about the prevalence of rape and results in fewer federal, state and local resources being devoted to catching rapists and helping rape victims. Rape crisis centers are among groups that cite the federal figures in applying for private and public financing.

“The public has the right to know about the prevalence of crime and violent crime in our communities, and we know that data drives practices, resources, policies and programs,” said Carol Tracy, executive director of the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia, whose office has campaigned to get the F.B.I. to change its definition of sexual assault. “It’s critical that we strive to have accurate information about this.”

Ms. Tracy spoke Friday at a meeting in Washington, organized by the Police Executive Research Forum, that brought together police chiefs, sex-crime investigators, federal officials and advocates to discuss the limitations of the federal definition and the wider issue of local police departments’ not adequately investigating rape.

According to the 2010 Uniform Crime Report, released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week, there were 84,767 sexual assaults in the United States last year, a 5 percent drop from 2009.

The definition of rape used by the F.B.I. — “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will” — was written more than 80 years ago. The yearly report on violent crime, which uses data provided voluntarily by the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies, is widely cited as an indicator of national crime trends.

But that definition, critics say, does not take into account sexual-assault cases that involve anal or oral penetration or penetration with an object, cases where the victims were drugged or under the influence of alcohol or cases with male victims. As a result, many sexual assaults are not counted as rapes in the yearly federal accounting.

“The data that are reported to the public come from this definition, and sadly, it portrays a very, very distorted picture,” said Susan B. Carbon, director of the Office on Violence Against Women, part of the Department of Justice. “It’s the message that we’re sending to victims, and if you don’t fit that very narrow definition, you weren’t a victim and your rape didn’t count.”

Steve Anderson, chief of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said that the F.B.I.’s definition created a double standard for police departments.

“We prosecute by one criteria, but we report by another criteria,” Chief Anderson said. “The only people who have a true picture of what’s going on are the people in the sex-crimes unit.”

In Chicago, the Police Department recorded close to 1,400 sexual assaults in 2010, according to the department’s Web site. But none of these appeared in the federal crime report because Chicago’s broader definition of rape is not accepted by the F.B.I.

The New York Police Department reported 1,369 rapes, but only 1,036 — the ones that fit the federal definition — were entered in the federal figures. And in Elizabeth Township, Pa., the sexual assault of a woman last year was widely discussed by residents. Yet according to the F.B.I.’s report, no rapes were reported in Elizabeth in 2010.

In a recent survey by the Police Executive Research Forum, almost 80 percent of the 306 police departments that responded said that the federal definition of rape used by the Uniform Crime Report was inadequate and should be changed.

Greg Scarbro, the F.B.I.’s unit chief for the Uniformed Crime Report, said that the agency agreed that the definition should be revised and that an F.B.I. subcommittee would take up the issue at a meeting on Oct. 18.

...

From the Washington Post blog:

In 1993, India passed a constitutional amendment requiring Indian states to have women in one-third of local government council positions. Since then, documented crimes against women have risen by 44 percent, rapes per capita by 23 percent, and kidnapping of women by 13 percent, according to some accounts.

Crimes against men and gender-neutral crimes haven’t seen a similar uptick, leading to some to wonder whether the alarming surge in violence against women has been retaliatory. But a group of researchers say there’s a better explanation for the rise: having more women in office has led to a big increase in crime reporting, not crime incidence against women:

Using state-level variation in the timing of political reforms, we find that an increase in female representation in local government induces a large and significant rise in documented crimes against women in India. Our evidence suggests that this increase is good news, driven primarily by greater reporting rather than greater incidence of such crimes. In contrast, we find no increase in crimes against men or gender-neutral crimes.

The researchers—who hail from the IMF, Harvard, and the University of Warwick—go on to explain how local law enforcement has become more responsive since 1993, which could also explain the increase in reporting crimes:

For one, we find evidence of greater police responsiveness to crimes against women after the reservation policy was implemented.

The number of arrests increases significantly, particularly for cases dealing with kidnapping of women, with no decline in the quality of police effort. This has likely encouraged more reporting by women victims. Survey data on interactions with police show both a higher degree of satisfaction and lower bribes paid by women when their village council was headed by a woman.

Article Abstract:
Using state-level variation in the timing of political reforms, we find that an increase in female representation in local government induces a large and significant rise in documented crimes against women in India. Our evidence suggests that this increase is good news, driven primarily by greater reporting rather than greater incidence of such crimes. In contrast, we find no increase in crimes against men or gender-neutral crimes. We also examine the effectiveness of alternative forms of political representation: large scale membership of women in local councils affects crime against them more than their presence in higher level leadership positions.

From the article:

From the press release:

Abstract

Sexual violence is endemic to Colombia's long-running armed conflict. Members of all the warring parties have sexually abused and exploited women and girls. This document focuses on the deeply-entrenched impunity that has for so long shielded from justice human rights abusers of all kinds in Colombia. This report examines what, if any, progress has been made by the authorities, particularly since 2008, in addressing sexual violence and impunity.

From CNN.com:

From Antiwar.com:

From the press release:

From the press release:

In the first U.S. nationwide study of stray-bullet shootings, Garen Wintemute, professor of emergency medicine and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center, quantifies mortality and injury among victims of these unexpected events.

His research is published as a letter in the August 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Stray-bullet shootings create fear and insecurity in many communities," said Wintemute. "People stay indoors, don't let their children play outside, and alter the patterns of their daily lives to avoid being struck by a bullet meant for someone else. Yet no research has been conducted at the national level to explore the epidemiology of these shootings. Such information is often important to identifying preventive measures."

For the study, Wintemute used Google and Yahoo news alerting services and the news archives of GunPolicy.org to track news stories published between March 2008 and February 2009 that contained the phrase "stray bullet." He defined stray-bullet shootings as situations where a bullet escaped an intended sociogeographic space and resulted in the injury of at least one person, either from the gunshot itself or a secondary mechanism, such as an injury from glass sent flying by a stray bullet. Typical scenarios included violence, shooting sports, celebratory gunfire and related activities. Cases also included shootings of bystanders who had no active role in a violent incident, and unintentional gunfire when the shooter and the person shot were not the same person.

Using these criteria, Wintemute and his colleagues identified 284 stray-bullet shootings events, in which 317 people were killed or injured. Most were incidental to violence. Unlike the risk pattern for violence, which most frequently affects young men, most persons struck by stray bullets were outside the 15 to 34 age range, and more than 40 percent were females.

In addition, most of the persons shot (81 percent) were unaware of the events leading to the gunfire that caused their injuries. Many (40.7 percent) were at home, and of these most (68.2 percent) were indoors. Of the 65 people who died, most died on the day they were shot, and many died at the shooting scene.

"Stray-bullet shootings are largely a byproduct of intentional violence, what we euphemistically call 'collateral damage,'" Wintemute said. "Those who are shot have little or no warning; opportunities to take preventive measures once the shooting starts are limited. Unless we intend to bulletproof entire communities and their residents, we will only be able to prevent these shootings to the extent that we are able to prevent firearm violence."

One limitation of the current study is the reliance on media reports to quantify stray-bullet shootings, which may have resulted in an underestimation of their frequency. Some shootings may not have been reported in the media, and only partial information was available for others.

Funding for this study was in received in part from the California Wellness Foundation, the Joyce Foundation and the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Foundation.

Research Letter
JAMA. 2011;306(5):491-492. doi: 10.1001/jama.2011.1066
Stray Bullet Shootings in the United States
Garen J. Wintemute, MD, MPH; Barbara Claire; Vanessa McHenry; Mona A. Wright, MPH [fee]

posted online by the Oregonian

From the press release: 

Women who reported experiencing gender-based violence, such as rape, sexual assault, intimate partner violence and stalking, had an associated higher lifetime prevalence of mental health disorders, dysfunction and disability, according to a study in the August 3 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights.

Violence against women is a major public health concern, contributing to high levels of illness and death worldwide, according to background information in the article. "In the United States, 17 percent of women report rape or attempted rape and more than one-fifth of women report intimate partner violence (IPV), stalking, or both. There is mounting evidence that each of these forms of gender-based violence (GBV) is associated with mental disorder among women, although methodological shortcomings of existing studies constrain the inferences that can be drawn," the authors write.

Susan Rees, Ph.D., of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and colleagues assessed the association of a composite index of GBV (rape, sexual abuse, IPV, and stalking) with a range of lifetime mental disorders, including indices of severity and co-existing illnesses. The researchers analyzed data from the Australian National Mental Health and Well-being Survey of 2007, which included 4,451 women (65 percent response rate), ages 16 to 85 years. Diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initiative was used to assess lifetime prevalence of any mental disorder, anxiety, mood disorder, substance use disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The researchers found that the lifetime prevalence for any mental disorder was 37.8 percent. A total of 1,218 women (27.4 percent) reported experiencing at least 1 of the types of GBV assessed in this study. The lifetime prevalence rates were 14.7 percent for sexual assault, 10 percent for stalking, 8.1 percent for rape, and 7.8 percent for IPV. Women who had been exposed to 1 form of GBV reported a high rate of lifetime mood disorder (weighted, 30.7 percent), lifetime anxiety disorder (38.5 percent), lifetime substance use disorder (23.0 percent), lifetime PTSD (15.2 percent), and any lifetime mental disorder (57.3 percent).

...

The researchers also found that gender-based violence was associated with more severe current mental disorder, higher rates of 3 or more lifetime disorders, physical disability, mental disability, impaired quality of life, an increase in disability days, and overall disability.

...

Lifetime Prevalence of Gender-Based Violence in Women and the Relationship With Mental Disorders and Psychosocial Function
Susan Rees, Derrick Silove, Tien Chey, Lorraine Ivancic, Zachary Steel, Mark Creamer, Maree Teesson, Richard Bryant, Alexander C. McFarlane, Katherine L. Mills, Tim Slade, Natacha Carragher, Meaghan O'Donnell, David Forbes
JAMA. 2011;306(5):513-521.
doi:10.1001/jama.2011.1098 [[fee]

Context: Intimate partner physical violence, rape, sexual assault, and stalking are pervasive and co-occurring forms of gender-based violence (GBV). An association between these forms of abuse and lifetime mental disorder and psychosocial disability among women needs to be examined.

Objectives: To assess the association of GBV and mental disorder, its severity and comorbidity, and psychosocial functioning among women.

Design, Setting, and Participants: A cross-sectional study based on the Australian National Mental Health and Well-being Survey in 2007, of 4451 women (65% response rate) aged 16 to 85 years.

Main Outcome Measures: The Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 3.0 of the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initiative was used to assess lifetime prevalence of any mental disorder, anxiety, mood disorder, substance use disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Also included were indices of lifetime trauma exposure, including GBV, sociodemographic characteristics, economic status, family history of mental disorder, social supports, general mental and physical functioning, quality of life, and overall disability.

Results: A total of 1218 women (27.4%) reported experiencing at least 1 type of GBV. For women exposed to 3 or 4 types of GBV (n = 139), the rates of mental disorders were 77.3% (odds ratio [OR], 10.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.85-17.30) for anxiety disorders, 52.5% (OR, 3.59; 95% CI, 2.31-5.60) for mood disorder, 47.1% (OR, 5.61; 95% CI, 3.46-9.10) for substance use disorder, 56.2% (OR, 15.90; 95% CI, 8.32-30.20) for PTSD, 89.4% (OR, 11.00; 95% CI, 5.46-22.17) for any mental disorder, and 34.7% (OR, 14.80; 95% CI, 6.89-31.60) for suicide attempts. Gender-based violence was associated with more severe current mental disorder (OR, 4.60; 95% CI, 2.93-7.22), higher rates of 3 or more lifetime disorders (OR, 7.79; 95% CI, 6.10-9.95), physical disability (OR, 4.00; 95% CI, 1.82-8.82), mental disability (OR, 7.14; 95% CI, 2.87-17.75), impaired quality of life (OR, 2.96; 95% CI, 1.60-5.47), an increase in disability days (OR, 3.14; 95% CI, 2.43-4.05), and overall disability (OR, 2.73; 95% CI, 1.99-3.75).

Conclusion: Among a nationally representative sample of Australian women, GBV was significantly associated with mental health disorder, dysfunction, and disability.