Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Violence against American Indian women and the services-training-officers-prosecutors violence against Indian women (STOP VAIW) program
Other Titles:	Violence against women
Authors:	Luna-Firebaugh, Eileen
Keywords:	Cross-cultural;Indigenous issues;Regional rural and remote areas
Year:	2006
Publisher:	Sage Publications
Citation:	12 (2), February 2006
Notes:	This article reports the findings of a study undertaken to evaluate the programmes and approaches undertaken to protect tribal women from violence that were initiated by American Indian Tribal governments using funds appropriated by the US Congress. A large part of the project was recognition that the primary requirement was the coordination of the various tribal programmes and non-government non-profit agencies involved in assisting Indian women victims of violence. The evaluation project had 3 main goals: to understand the legal and cultural contexts of reducing violence; to evaluate the impact of tribal programmes aimed at reducing violence against women for effectiveness and to identify aspects that need adjusting; and to recommend improvements to existing programmes as well as new programmes that may assist tribes in the reduction of violence. Indian women were targeted for this project because they are victims of violence at a rate 50% higher than black males – the next highest group in the American population. Twenty-five communities were selected for site visits to conduct the evaluation of projects such as police training and reporting, arrest protocols, protective orders and a comparison between calls for service and numbers of arrests. A primary challenge for the project was that in many cases there was nothing in place before VAIW, which was introduced in 1995, and few tribes had their own police service. Different tribes approached the problem differently; however, there were common issues for most of them, including the following: the coordination of services and the development of intra-tribal communication – if coordination was achieved, the response was more effective; consistent, continual high-quality training of police officers and avoidance of the problem of high turnover of police staff; finding a secure place to house perpetrators; innovative approaches to tribal prosecution; the provision of shelters or safe houses where tribes could not afford a full shelter or worse when the only available shelter was off-reservation and may not even be Indian; enforcing “full faith and credit” reciprocity – particularly in the case of tribal orders that are not universally recognised (this last issue has been addressed to some extent where tribes establish a solid working relationship with the law enforcement agencies that surround them). The authors conclude that the programme has made a significant impact on the problem of women victims of violence in Indian country, the most significant factor being the development of coordinated, community-wide responses to the problem of domestic violence. The study resulted in recommendations being made particularly under the subjects of: training; victim services; law enforcement and prosecution.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/12581
ISSN:	1077-8012
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

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