VAWnet News Blog

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month! The Domestic Violence Awareness Project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence lends our voice and support to focus attention to teen dating violence during the month of February.

Rep. Donna Lichtenegger (R- Cape Girardeau) wants to expand the crime of unlawful possession of a firearm to include those who have been convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or who have protection orders against them. “This bill was worked out between the domestic violence community and the [National Rifle Association],” says Lichtenegger.

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.”

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.

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.