Center on Victimization and Safety

The Center’s work includes:

• Serving Survivors with Disabilities and Deaf Survivors
  Disability organizations often lack the resources needed to safely respond to domestic and sexual violence; victim services are often unable to address the access needs of people with disabilities. CVS’s Accessing Safety Initiative promotes collaborations between disability and victim service organizations and enhances organizational capacity to serve Deaf survivors and survivors with disabilities.
   
• Addressing Domestic Violence in Supervised Visitation Programs for Families
  During custody proceedings, batterers often use access to children to continue to batter, control, stalk, and intimidate their victims. Providers of supervised visitation and safe exchange services need to understand the dynamics of battering and be equipped to intervene appropriately. CVS’s Supervised Visitation Initiative is helping the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women enhance its supports for supervised visitation programs in ways that ensure the safety of domestic violence victims and their children.
   
• Identifying and Sharing Promising Practices to Address Domestic Violence, Sexual Violence, and Stalking
  To design the most effective interventions against domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking, policymakers and practitioners in advocacy, law enforcement, prosecution, and the courts need easy access to information about solutions that work. CVS’s Promising Practices Initiative is working closely with officials from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women and experts from the field to identify and share promising practices that will help jurisdictions improve their responses to these issues.

Why We Do This Work
Domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking are serious public health issues that affect millions of women, children, and men in the United States.

► 1 in 4 women have experienced domestic violence in their lifetime.¹
► 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.² 
► 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys have been sexually abused before the age of 18.³
► 1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men have been stalked in their lifetime.⁴

As more is learned about these forms of violence and successful interventions, criminal justice and social service delivery systems must adapt to respond to the changing nature of violence and abuse. They must also become increasingly sensitive to those who are affected and adopt practices that can best meet their needs and, ultimately, end violence altogether. The Center on Victimization and Safety combines research, planning, and technical assistance to facilitate this process.

For more information about Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety, contact center director Nancy Smith. 

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¹Tjaden, Patricia & Thoennes, Nancy. National Institute of Justice and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, “Extent, Nature and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey,” (2000).
²U.S. Department of Justice, “Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women,” November 1998.
³U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Adverse Childhood Experiences Study.”
⁴Tjaden, Patricia & Thoennes, Nancy. (1998). “Stalking in America.” National Institute for Justice.