VAWnet News Blog

"Hotel housekeepers work alone, cleaning rooms. And oftentimes, there's a power imbalance between the women who clean them — who are often women of color, immigrants — and guests who have those rooms who pay hundreds of dollars a night."

Earlier this year, NPR reported that people with intellectual disabilities are victims of some of the highest rates of sexual assault. Now states, communities and advocates are making reforms aimed at improving those statistics.

HEART Women & Girls puts sex education in a cultural context, recognizing that Muslim survivors of sexual abuse, especially women, face obstacles to reporting the crimes both within and outside the community.

Internet-connected locks, speakers, thermostats, lights and cameras that have been marketed as the newest conveniences are now also being used as a means for harassment, monitoring, revenge and control.

"The women of Travis County have been failed by the people sworn to protect them — the government officials and actors who have instead disbelieved, dismissed and denigrated female victims of sexual assault, failed to have DNA evidence tested for years at a time, and refused to investigate or prosecute cases of sexual assault against female survivors because juries purportedly do not like ‘he said, she said’ cases," the lawsuit says.

A widening body of research in the past two decades has found that abusers often threaten, injure and even kill victims’ animals, and surveys of women at shelters have found that about 20 percent to 50 percent say concerns about a pet’s fate delayed their decision to flee.