This article is written by Cailin Crockett, Security Fellow, Truman National Security Project, and former policy advisor on gender-based violence in the Obama Administration.
Last week marked the culmination of this year’s 16 days of action against gender-based violence, and Human Rights Day.
In every corner of the world, women and girls are killed by those closest to them, most often, at the hands of their intimate partners. On 25 November, the first day of the 16 days of action, the Macron government announced new, historic measures to curb the scourge of intimate partner homicides in France.
It was a watershed moment for the country, and a direct result of French women activists, who spearheaded the “Nous Toutes”/All of Us (women) movement, mobilising hundreds of thousands of protestors over the past year calling for government action on the rising toll of women killed by intimate partners.
More US women are dying from firearms
According to French government figures, 121 women were killed in the last year by a current or former partner, a rate equivalent to one woman every three days. This makes France one of the deadliest countries for women in Western Europe.
I watched the news from France with mixed emotions: delight at the accountability French women successfully demanded from their government, and grave dismay at the contrast between the severity of this issue in my own country. According to the FBI, 962 U.S. women were killed by a current or former partner in 2016—a rate 7.8 times higher than the figure that spurred the French government into action. (Even when considering the U.S. population is 4.8 times that of France, the difference in intimate partner femicide is marked.)
In 2015, 92% of all women killed with guns in high-income countries were from the U.S.
What’s behind these differing figures? Guns. A new report by Everytown for Gun Safety, released in October, underscores the depth of gun violence against women in America. Everytown’s research has found that 52 women are shot and killed by their partner every month in the U.S.
Compared to women in other high-income countries (including France), women in the U.S. are 21 times more likely to die by firearm homicide from an abuser. In 2015, 92% of all women killed with guns in high-income countries were from the U.S. The uniquely devastating problem of gun violence in America has garnered attention from the United Nations in recent years, with both the UN Secretary General and UN Human Rights Commissioner issuing statements condemning the unrelenting violence, and underscoring its particularly gendered impact.
Even as all other forms of intimate partner homicide have gone down over the past decade, women are dying by their abusers’ use of firearms at an accelerated rate, new research shows.
We know how to reverse the trend
It is tempting to compare the two countries — all their vast differences notwithstanding — and ask if U.S. policymakers should perhaps learn from their French counterparts.
It is an interesting question, especially if we take a closer look at the proposals Macron has laid out in response to Nous Toutes, which look almost identical to steps taken in the U.S. more than twenty-five years ago, among them:
Establishing a 24-hour hotline for victims of intimate partner violence;
Expanding “specialised social workers” (equivalent to victim advocates in the U.S.) in police stations; and,
Increasing interventions for abusers to avoid repeat offences (equivalent to U.S. Batterer’s Intervention Programs).
Will these measures make a dent in the French rate of intimate partner homicide? It is too early to tell, but looking back at the impact of U.S. federal government support for these resources, gives reason to be cautiously optimistic.
Since the early 1990s, the U.S. federal government has funded a national network of victim services for intimate partner and sexual violence, the result of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), introduced by then-Senator Joe Biden in 1994. Research has shown that, since VAWA’s passage, which did things like establishing the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline, there has been a steep decline in the rate of intimate partner violence in America. It is estimated that victimisation rates went down more than 78% between 1993 and 2015.
Despite this success, women are more at risk of dying from gun violence than ever before—especially for women from racial and ethnic minority populations, with Black and American Indian and Alaska Native women the most disproportionately affected.
The reason for this increase is clear.
Public health researchers and victim advocates alike affirm that the explanatory variable is a limited, and in some cases, weakened, national legal landscape to regulate firearms.
One thing we should all be able to agree on is that the loss of just one woman to partner violence is one too many
In the U.S. today, federal law prohibits people convicted of intimate partner violence crimes and under protection orders from possessing guns—but only if the abuser has been married to, lives with, or shares a child in common with the victim. This excludes many dating partners. Federal law also lacks a prohibition for stalkers convicted of a misdemeanour from possessing guns—despite the fact that even first-time stalkers have been shown to commit homicides. There is legislation poised to address these safety gaps, but the Senate is divided in its approach, halting further action.
A cause for cautious optimism
This climate stands in sharp contrast to France, which has been augmenting its policies to prevent gun violence in recent years, becoming one of the strictest countries in Europe when it comes to access to firearms.
Such measures have cut the national rate of gun ownership in half. This bodes well for the potential positive impact of Macron’s November 25 announcements to curb intimate partner violence deaths. While France is taking steps to build a national infrastructure of support for victims, much like VAWA, it has the missing ingredient the U.S. lacks: sensible regulations on guns.
Still, it is worth noting that the advocates behind Nous Toutes, whose diligence inspired these actions, find these new measures lacking—primarily lamenting what they see as inadequate funding. They are right to do so. This reflects a global pattern of a lack of investment in women’s rights and safety—a struggle shared by U.S. advocates in the movement to end violence against women.
Nevertheless, coming off the heels of these 16 days of action, the response of the Macron government to the mobilisation of Nous Toutes offers a lesson in the power of civil society to push for change. Because of their demands for government accountability, the women of France will now see new policies that we can only hope will bring down the level of violence. Because one thing we should all be able to agree on is that the loss of just one woman to partner violence is one too many. — Cailin Crockett
(Picture credit: Death to the stock photo)
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