Violence Against Women Act

Despite a 706-page report published in early 1978 titled Battered Women: Issues of Public Policy, A consultation sponsored by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, 16 years passed before the U.S. Congress enacted the first federal legislation related to preventing and addressing violence against women. In 1994, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed as a part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Subsequently, the law has been reauthorized in the VAWA of 2000, the VAWA and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005, and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. This entry provides a brief history of violence against women in the United States, including major events prior to VAWA’s passage, and then reviews the challenges to ...