VAWnet News Blog

BEIJING — Police officers on Monday evening released five female activists who were detained early last month in China after trying to start a campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation, two lawyers representing the women said. One of the lawyers, Liang Xiaojun, said police officers in western Beijing, where the five women were held for weeks, had to release the detainees after prosecutors decided not to immediately press criminal charges. The police had asked the prosecutors last week to charge all five women with organizing a crowd to disturb public order.

Local and national experts on domestic violence and the elderly said that while research focuses on younger victims, assaults are likely just as prevalent among the elderly. In 2012, about 5 percent of domestic violence victims in New Jersey — or 2,900 of all reported cases — were 60 or older, according to the New Jersey State Police Uniform Report on Domestic Violence.

Adelma Cifuentes’ story of abuse, escape, and get the justice continues to open the eyes of many to the flight of violence against women and gender-based violence in Guatemala, where nearly 10 out of every 100,000 women are killed, it’s hardly unusual.

Last April, Scalia appeared at the National Press Club beside his judicial polar opposite — and friend — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The two were asked how they would amend the Constitution, if they could. The Notorious R.B.G., as she is sometimes referred to these days, didn’t hesitate.

by Ali Mailen Perrotto of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center

Its been 20 years since the Violence Against Women Act was signed into law. To honor that anniversary, officials from the Department of Justice are visiting outreach programs across the nation. Monday, they made several stops in Ouachita and Morehouse parish.