January 31, 2019 – Today is the last day of “stalking awareness month.” Yet, each day we see more new incidents of violence against women–including the mental and emotional torture which is stalking. In fact, most of us know that stalking is often a precursor to physical violence against women. But how often does stalking really occur? Since this is “stalking awareness month” I thought it would only be appropriate to review the statistics. According to a 2019 report compiled by the organization Stalking Awareness, utilizing data from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey in 2015, “an estimated 6-7.5 million people are stalked in a one year period in the US.” Most of the victims are women. In fact, a conservative figure is, “nearly 1 in 6 women and 1 in 17 men have experience stalking victimization at some point in their lifetime.” This is quite troubling as stalking is often a precursor to more insidious acts of violence.
For those who aren’t aware, the definition of “stalking” is: “To engage in an intentional course of conduct directed at a specific person which would cause the victim substantial mental distress or fear of violence or death.”
According to studies done by the University of Kentucky in 2015, with the help of the National Domestic Violence Hotline and Professor TK Logan at the University of Kentucky, it was found that women are extremely distrustful of police and afraid that the situation will become worse if it is reported. They are also afraid that if they report it, they will not be believed–and often are not.
The most publicized example that exemplifies fear of reporting “beyond stalking” and “not” being believed, is the alleged incident of sexual assault and rape to which Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified. Not only did we get to see how an upper-middle class white, educated professor was treated by a group of mostly white middle to upper class men–we got to see how her claims were dismissed. We also got to see how the professor and her family were again victimized–having to leave their home because of numerous threats of violence because of her testimony against a high-profile upper-class white man. What we do know is that she elucidated the tribunal about what she recounted as a terrifying experience in her youth–one that left indelible marks on her psyche to include her ever-recurring fear and sense of panic.
Of course that testimony was in regard to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court — and like so many women who bring their trauma to a tribunal–Dr. Ford was not believed by the swath of the male dominated Republican senators. Not only was she not believed, but the person whom she recounted as being the cause of her pain and fear was elevated to the highest court in the land. So what does this convey to ordinary women who think about testifying against an abusive spouse or boyfriend? To most women, it says don’t bother reporting abuse as you will never be believed, and your testimony will have no weight. And, with regard to Dr. Blasey-Ford–for all she went through in testifying–with nothing to gain–she hardly got any investigation of the facts and/or witnesses at all. Sound familiar? Surprised? You shouldn’t be.
According to an interview last year conducted at Harvard Kennedy school of Government, Professor Jane Mansbridge told a reporter: that after the US Supreme Court case of Craig v Boren in 1976, gender-based discrimination only got a “bump-up” from lowest threshold of review by courts to an “intermediate” level. This means it was just a little harder for governmental actors to pass a statute which negatively affects certain “protected classes”– is gender-based discrimination. Based upon this description of how it is “legal” to treat issues related to gender as only “quasi-suspect” (unlike race or national origin which gets high-level scrutiny by a court or tribunal), it seems only reasonable now to see why Dr. Blasey-Ford’s testimony was treated with disdain–she was “legally” discriminated against by a group of white men who really didn’t want to investigate the truth. And because of an artifice of a time constraint that the Republican senators themselves placed upon the confirmation process–is it any wonder how they artfully got “their guy” onto the nation’s highest court? This and the fact that the Equal Rights Amendment has never become a Constitutional Amendment since it passed Congress in 1972 and went to the states for ratification–is no surprise. It clearly speaks volumes as to why and how Christine Blasey-Ford and other women are treated with such disdain by courts, that is when they report and testify about violent acts inflicted upon their person.
In my recent interview with Attorney and Victim Advocate Wendy Murphy, she discusses why women are treated as second class citizens. She says it’s simple–because the Equal Rights Amendment has never become law; and until it does, sexual assault and gender-based crimes will never get the strict scrutiny they deserve in courts of law. As she says, “It’s really simple,” women don’t get treated fairly, because they aren’t equal” and because they aren’t equal, the system doesn’t have to treat them fairly.
Even more troubling than this, it was recently reporting in the “opinion” section of The Hill–that the US is facilitating forced marriage of children because of an immigration “loophole’ – causing young girls to suffer needlessly. That article clearly outlines the way young girls are used and abused in order to get visas–often trapping very young girls in a form of domestic slavery–and ultimately ruining their lives. Not only must US laws on acquiring international visas be changed, but state laws “minimums” must also be changed that currently allow acknowledgment of “existing marriages” of young child brides. This “acknowledgement” currently enables child smugglers to bring in children as “spouses” under the “guise” of marriage, subvert justice, and exploit vulnerable children for child trafficking, slavery and abuse.
So if you think it’s more work to be done both on a state and federal level to ensure Equal Rights and equality–you are not alone.
For more information on the status of Equal Rights in America, visit Equal Means Equal; and to click here to learn if your state allows child marriage so that you can petition for change. Stay tuned for upcoming programming on The Legal Edition with insightful programming and articles on women and the law, gender-discrimination and immigration.
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