Today, April 12th, 2022, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-02) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA)sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) pushing them to immediately implement parts of the newly reauthorized Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that make clear and consistent definitions of sexual assault so it can be better addressed.
“Survivors of sexual violence need our support and having all of the data available is crucial. The federal agencies need to be in unison on definitions and terminology to best collect data around sexual violence,” said Miller-Meeks. “A lack of coordination could easily lead to misreporting and that is unacceptable. DOJ needs to get to work immediately to implement this provision and support survivors so that we can accurately take on and hopefully bring an end to abuse.”
“Every survivor counts and needs to be counted because we won’t end this epidemic of abuse if we aren’t properly identifying and measuring it,” said Ernst. “As part of the VAWA reauthorization, we directed the U.S. Attorney General to resolve these differences once and for all. He needs to take swift action and enact this law so we can improve our efforts to understand, address, prevent, and define sexual violence.”
Background:
In the letter the Iowa lawmakers are calling attention to “the Washington bureaucracy’s confusing case counting that lacks clarity and consistency” and that is resulting in varying estimates of the issue, “from 244,190 rape or sexual assault victimizations in a single year to as many as 1,929,000 victims of rape or attempted rape during the same period.”
Original source can be found here
