RADAR ALERT: Unaccountable DV Programs Misuse Tax Dollars, Place Victims at Risk

Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2008-03-10 13:05

"We have no evidence to date that VAWA has led to a decrease in the overall levels of violence against women." –Angela Moore Parmley, PhD, U.S. Department of Justice

Very often, bad public policy accompanies bad fiscal policy. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is no exception.

The quote above comes from a Justice Department official with no ax to grind. VAWA is ideological public policy in which true debate is considered politically incorrect. None of the discussions in Congress leading up to the passage of the original 1995 VAWA bill, the 2000 reauthorization, nor the 2005 reauthorization involved any real debate about the merit, or lack of merit, of the programs to be funded. The predictable result is that VAWA is filled with waste, fraud, and abuse. In short, ideology has been given priority over efficacy, and Congress' expenditure of roughly $1 billion tax dollars per year on domestic violence programs is yielding very poor results.

These problems are outlined in RADAR's latest special report: $1 Billion for DV Programs That Misuse Taxpayer Money and Place Victims at Risk.

The report identifies three major flaws in the way domestic violence programs are administered by both the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services:

  1. Lack of Accountability
  2. Federal Mismanagement of Grant Monies
  3. Grantee Misconduct and Fraud

Please take the time to read RADAR's new special report here (.pdf file).

Educate yourself and your organization, and share the report with other groups in your state, especially those concerned with government accountably and waste. We need to start now to build a coalition to ensure adequate debate for the next VAWA reauthorization.

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Date of RADAR Release: March 10, 2008

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R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women
working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence. http://www.mediaradar.org/.

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Comments

It would be interesting to get the actual data about women's shelters who have no reporting obligations, as well as the myriad "batterer's treatment" programs who have no legal requirements to evaluate their effectiveness.

In fact there is no definition of "effectiveness" to be found in VAWA or in any other legislation.

The DV INDUSTRY is the biggest scam going today. You can become a domestic violence counselor and make six figures a year after completing a twelve-week Duluth Model feminist certification program!

However, a male DV counselor must always be accompanied by a female DV counselor.

It is an interesting ideology.

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Submitted by Roy on Mon, 2008-03-10 15:45

Do counselors make $100,000 per year?
And do male counselors require oversight by a female counselor?

oregon dad

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Submitted by oregon dad on Mon, 2008-03-10 17:34

The typical program for court-ordered "batterer's treatment" is 24 weeks of two-hour per week group counseling with usually about twenty men in each group.

An average charge of about $60 per hour is not unusual.

So, do the math: for twenty guys at that rate, it works out to $57,600 to complete one program.

And there are DV counseling firms that are processing 3 - 4 such groups each week.

It is entirely possible to make six figures depending upon your location and the aggressiveness of the DV courts in mandating that men attend these programs.

The money that men are court-ordered to pay is augmented by VAWA funds that subsidize these counseling services.

There are also state grants that are awarded to pay salaries and facility costs.

It is an astounding racket if you do the research and see what is going on.

And yes, there always has to be a female "counselor" in the room, even if a man is leading the session. All she has to do is sit and take notes. (Except for the female batterer's sessions, where no man is allowed to facilitate or be present.)

I'm not making this up. Call your state's DV agency and get a copy of the rules.

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Submitted by Roy on Mon, 2008-03-10 22:12

but I guess this is what we can expect these days...

oregon dad

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Submitted by oregon dad on Tue, 2008-03-11 18:00