American Reinvestment and Recovery Act - Literature review Example

American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of the of the Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Violence against Women 3 Psychology of Violence 4 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) 5 Office on Violence against Women (OVW) 6 Literature Review The nature of violence against women remains static, despite the change in geographic location or socio-demographic dynamics (Alhabib, Nur, & Jones, 2010). The nature of violence against women hardly transforms with alteration in their geographic location. For example, Alhabib, Nur, and Jones (2010) and Grovert (2008) found similarity in violence shown against women between the USA and countries such as, India, Nigeria, Germany and others. In this study, the key focus will be on exploring the impact of American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) on violence against women in the USA. In this paper, therefore, the dynamics of violence against women will be judged with reference to socio-economic pattern of the USA. Violence against Women In Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the United Nations (1993) defined violence as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life” (Article 1). Decoding this definition reveals the fact that violence against women includes all types of physical, verbal and sexual assaults that can cause harm to the physical body, sense of trust, of liberty and that of private life of women (Runyan & Peterson, 2013; Alhabib, Nur & Jones, 2010). In the USA, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was established in 1994 in order to create a protective shield, restricting rise in violence against women in the country. The VAWA (1994) defined violence as the exertion of any physical force intended to cause an injury or abuse to women. Such definitions are applicable regardless of nationality, age, racial orientation and ethnicity of women. In the USA, more than 2 million women are either physically assaulted or raped by their intimate partners (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000; Matthews, 2004; Grovert, 2008). Alhabib, Nur, and Jones (2010) found that “the lifetime prevalence of domestic violence” changes significantly with that of geographic locations across the USA. For example, “the lifetime prevalence of domestic violence” is just 1.9% in Washington, while it is more than 68% in case of countryside in the USA. In the context of the USA, physical violence is probably the most common type of violence that is committed against women (Turner, 2002). In case of physical violence, one person intentionally hurts physical parts of woman that can cause outcomes such as, murder, femicide or filicide (Khawaja & Barazi, 2005). Intimate sexual violence can also be regarded as one of the most prevalent forms of violence committed against women in the USA. In case of intimate sexual violence, one or many individuals (male as well as female) compel women to engage in forceful sexual activities (intercourse without the consent of woman). Such forceful sexual activities can cause pain, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy for the respective woman (Garcia-Moreno, et al., 2006). In the worst scenario, disabled and elder women in the family are also targeted for sexual assault (Weiss, 2000). Apart from physical and sexual violence, there can be other types of violence such as, psychological abuse, which may cause serious damage to mental stability of women. A significant amount of controversy exists regarding the demarcation between psychological abuse and other two types of violence; sexual assault and physical violence (Krauss, 2006). Psychological abuse can be categorized as abusive verbal behavior by the partner or any individual associated with the woman. Krauss (2006) and Khawaja & Barazi (2005) found it perplexing to ‘genderize’ the psychological abuse. Even Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) (1994) had faced difficultly to address intangibility aspects of psychological violence. In case of psychological abuse, harsh words are intentionally or unintentionally inflicted by male or female members in the family on particular women, which can result in mental strain, psychological stress, emotional breakdown or nervous breakdown (Grovert, 2008). Psychology of Violence In the seminal research work on psychoanalysis, Freud (1920) proposed intrapersonal theories that can be used to understand psychology of individuals who commit violence against females. Within the realm of intrapersonal theories, women are perceived as emotionally immature, masochistic and deviant. Even Freud (1920) argued that the society perceive women as biologically and morally ‘deficient men’, while strong women are perceived as mere ‘castrating’ by the male members in society. Freud (1920) used stereotypical notion to classify both strong and weak women as maladjusted members in the society. As a result, male members consider these maladjusted members in the society as soft centers on which they can execute powers to coerce. Feminist scholars like, Bolen (2000), strongly criticized Freud’s (1920) notion and found the intrapersonal theory plagued by gender biasness. Rather, Bolen (2000) classified victimizers as ‘cobras’ who are antisocial, egotistical and cruel men who enjoy punishing women. These male members in the society lack empathy and respect towards women; hence, they punish women in terms of sexual assault, physical violence or psychological abuse, without any remorse (Bolen, 2000). American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) On February 17, 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) were signed by President Barrack Obama (Executive Office of the President Council of Economic Advisers, 2014). Due to the economic recession that started in 2008, the USA economy witnessed protracted fall of gross domestic product (GDP) and stiff elevation of unemployment rate. In order to address the concerning situation, the US congress appointed a transition team for preparing the draft proposal for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Executive Office of the President Council of Economic Advisers, 2014). The ARRA has been designed as economic stimulus package in order to revive domestic sectors, generate jobs and provide temporal relief to individuals and business enterprises that are negatively affected by economic recession. The five objectives for ARRA can be elaborated as, 1- promoting economic recovery by creating job opportunity, 2- providing financial assistance to most impacted entities in the recession, 3- spurring technological advances and investing in infrastructure development, 4- investing in activities that will entail long-term economic prospects and 5- stabilizing state as well as local government budgets. Figure 1: Functional Categories of ARRA (Source: Executive Office of the President Council of Economic Advisers, 2014) Office on Violence against Women (OVW) In the USA, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) works on behalf of The Department of Justice, which has received $225 million through monetary channel of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 (United States Department of Justice, 2010). In order to lower violence against women in the country, OVW distributed the ARRA fund by way of discretionary grants and awarding formula. Contribution from Indian tribal governments, non-profit organizations and local governments was also included to fund justice for women who were exposed to violence (physical, sexual and psychological). The distribution of the ARRA fund can be described in the following cohort. Table 1: OVW Grant Programs fund Distribution Allocated For Allocation Amount Indian Tribal Governments Program $20.8 million State Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Coalitions Program $8.75 million Transitional Housing Assistance for women who are victim of Sexual Assault, Dating Violence and Domestic Violence $43 million STOP Violence Against Women $140 million Sexual Assault Coalitions Grant Program and Tribal Domestic Violence $2.8 million (Source: United States Department of Justice, 2010) The OVW created program-specific objectives in order to utilize the Recovery Act funding and these objectives can be stated as, 1- improving response of the criminal justice system towards violence against women, 2- facilitating multidisciplinary as well as coordinated approach towards enhancing efficiency of the criminal justice system for violence against women, 3- developing prosecution strategies to address violent crimes committed against women, 4- providing direct support to members of rape crisis centers with the help of public awareness, technical assistance and training (United States Department of Justice, 2010). References Alhabib, S., Nur, U., & Jones, R. (2010). Domestic Violence Against Women: Systematic Review of Prevalence Studies. J Fam Viol, 25, 369–382. Bolen, R. M. (2000). The epidemic of rape and child sexual abuse in the united states. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. Executive Office of the President Council of Economic Advisers. (2014). The economic impact of the American recovery and reinvestment act: Five years later. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/cea_arra_report.pdf. Freud, S. (1920). Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. Middlesex, England: Penguin. Garcia-Moreno, C., Jansen, H., Ellsberg, M., Heike, L., & Watts, C. (2006). Prevalence of intimate partner violence: Findings from the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence. Lancet, 368, 1260–1269. Grovert, A. J. (2008). Domestic Violence Against Women: A Literature Review. Retrieved from http://commons.pacificu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=spp. Khawaja, M., & Barazi, R. (2005). Prevalence of wife beating in Jordanian refugee camps: reports by men and women. Journal of Epidemiological Community Health, 59, 840–841. Krauss, H. (2006). Perspectives on violence. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 108, 4–21. Matthews, D. D. (2004). Domestic violence sourcebook. 2nd ed. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics. Runyan, A. S., & Peterson, V. S. (2013). Global gender issues in the new millennium. 4th ed. Arizona: Perseus Books. Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (2000). Extent, nature and consequences of intimate partner violence: findings from the national violence against women survey. United States Department of Justice: Office of Justice Program. Turner, J. S. (2002). Families in America. Santa Barbara, .CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. United Nations. (1993). Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/48/a48r104.htm. United States Department of Justice. (2010). Program-Specific Plan for Management of Recovery Act Funds. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/recovery/pdfs/cops-plan.pdf. Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). (1994). Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Law & Legal Definition. Retrieved from http://definitions.uslegal.com/v/violence-against-women-act-vawa/. Weiss, E. (2000). Surviving domestic violence: Voices of women who broke free. Volcano, CA: Volcano Press. Read More