VAWnet News Blog

This year marks the 20th anniversary of YWCA’s Week Without Violence, a week-long campaign that mobilizes people in communities across the United States to take action against all forms of violence, wherever it may occur. Each day of Week Without Violence, we will highlight one of the following issues:

Want to help more victims of domestic violence find safety? Let people bring their pets with them to domestic violence shelters. That’s a conclusion of a report released this week by the nonprofit Urban Resource Institute. Read More

Over a five-day period the operation was planned for three months, called “Operation Cross Country,” rescuing 149 sexually exploited children in 135 cities. About 150 suspected pimps are now behind bars. Metro Detroit had the second-highest number of children rescued in their sting. All girls, 12-17 years old and their living conditions were described as horrible.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller is headed to Mexico to tackle human trafficking and the drug cartel. Both issues are having a direct impact on the Hoosier State.

There are few empirical studies on the prevalence of TBI among women and children affected by domestic violence. But evidence so far strongly indicates a silent epidemic, with major public health ramifications.

In 2002 I was travelling back from work in Nairobi when I was carjacked and raped at gunpoint; I was 27. […] The police reported the incident not as a rape, but as robbery with violence. They wouldn’t speak of the rape because to them it wasn’t a crime. But it’s a huge problem in Kenya. A 2010 national survey (pdf) suggested that 32% of girls experienced sexual violence before becoming adults. Read More