Services Provided to Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, and Stalking

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Historically, domestic violence, sexual assaults, and stalking incidents have often been ignored by society and treated as private family matters. However, in 1984, Congress passed and the President signed the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) to, among other things, help prevent domestic violence and provide shelter and related assistance for victims. Grants funded under the act are administered by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Administration for Children and Families and are available to states, Indian tribal governments and organizations, state domestic violence coalitions, and public and private nonprofit entities. In response to continued concerns about domestic violence as well as sexual assault and stalking incidents, Congress passed and the President signed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994. VAWA created new federal criminal laws and established additional grant programs within HHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for state, local, and Indian tribal governments and nonprofit organizations. These grant programs have various purposes, such as providing funding for direct services including emergency shelter, counseling, and legal services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assaults, and stalking across all segments of the population. The Violence Against Women and DOJ Reauthorization Act of 2005, enacted January 5, 2006, requires us to conduct a study and report on data indicating the prevalence of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking among men, women, youth, and children; to survey DOJ, as well as any recipients of federal funding, to identify what services are provided to victims of these crimes; and to report on whether the services are made available to men, women, youth, and children, as well as the number, age, and gender of victims receiving each available service. This report responds to the segment of the mandate related to victim services. This report presents the results of our efforts to address the following questions: (1) What types of data have grant recipients collected and reported to HHS and DOJ related to services provided under these grant programs to victims, specifically data by type of service on the extent to which men, women, youth, and children receive each service? and (2) What challenges, if any, do federal departments report that they and their grant recipients would face in collecting and reporting information on the demographic characteristics of victims receiving services by type of service, if they currently do not do so?