Abusegate Action Item: Send your letter to incoming OVW head Susan Carbon

From Abusegate Bob:

Last Friday, Susan B. Carbon took over as director of the DoJ Office of Violence Against Women. As we work to reform VAWA and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (which funds abuse shelters and state DV coalitions), it’s important that the OVW understand and support the need for reform.

So I’d like to encourage your group to send a one-page welcome letter to her. The letter should outline your organization’s work to stop domestic violence, offer to work with the OVW in its continued efforts, and be polite and constructive in tone.

You may also want to include a paragraph to this effect (change the exact wording so it doesn’t sound canned):

Research shows men and women are approximately likely to abuse. The 2000 NIJ-CDC survey found approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States. More recent CDC studies have found women are more likely to be the perpetrators of abuse:

1. Among young adults, 71% of perpetrators in one-way abuse are female: Daniel Whitaker et al. Differences in Frequency of Violence and Reported Injury Between Relationships With Reciprocal and Nonreciprocal Intimate Partner Violence American Journal of Public Health, May 2007.
2. Teenage girls are substantially more likely to initiate physical aggression than teenage boys: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Factors. Behavioral Surveillance—United States, 2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review 2008; 57.