VAWnet News Blog

The state of Alaska experiences noticeably high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault, and new results from the 2015 Alaska Victimization Survey report the unfortunate reputation of stalking statewide.The survey reported among all women in the state, that one in three, more than 80,800, have been stalked in their lifetime, while one in seventeen, more than 15,300, have been stalked in the past year.

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay, best known for the critically-acclaimed film “Selma” about the equal voting rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., brings another thought-provoking medium to audiences in the form of the Oscar-nominated Netflix Original Documentary entitled “13th.”

THE ISSUE As LNP reported Thursday, the parents of Karlie Hall have filed a federal lawsuit against Millersville University, and others, claiming her 2015 death could have been prevented had more action been taken following previous incidents involving Hall and Gregorio Orrostieta, the boyfriend who killed her. The suit was filed Jan. 17 in the U.S. Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Acacia Fraternity and many of its members, accused of providing the underage Orrostieta and Hall with alcohol at a party the night of the killing, are also named in the suit. Hall was beaten and strangled by Orrostieta in her dorm room on Feb. 8, 2015. He was found guilty of third-degree murder in May 2016 and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison. This editorial is not going to argue the merits of the lawsuit being pressed by Karlie Hall’s parents.

Closing what many regard as a gaping loophole in Ohio's domestic-violence laws has become a top priority for state legislators. Currently, only Ohio and Georgia do not offer specific legal options for victims of dating violence, such as civil-protection orders. A protection order from a judge can legally prevent contact between a victim and perpetrator, including ordering that person to move out of a home that a couple shares. It also can grant child custody and require the offender to relinquish any firearms. But currently, such orders are limited to family members.

HIGH POINT, N.C. -- It is an initiative that has received national recognition and now a filmmaking group is looking to put it on the big screen. The documentary is called "High Point 10-79," which focuses in on the city's effort to combat domestic violence. 10-79 being a code for a domestic violence call. However, for Tom Parr, he didn't expect that a chance phone call would be the inspiration behind this documentary.

I resisted therapy until I was well into full-fledged adulthood, at which point I had earned my masters degree in social work and felt qualified enough to engage others in the counseling and coaching process. What I didn’t know then was how powerful self-discovery can be to personal empowerment (the process of gaining control over one’s own life), and to the journey of healing and resilience.