‘You Don’t Know How Long 11 Minutes Is’: What People Don’t Know About Domestic Violence

Angela Carpenter is a municipal court judge in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Twice a month on Tuesday afternoons, she presides over domestic violence court. She doesn’t want members of the public, who might be called to serve on juries or grand juries, to dismiss domestic violence cases with a shrug: Why didn’t she just leave??

Perspective, Story Behind The StoryKatherine MitchellNovember 9, 2021VAWA, Violence against women act, Women leaving, abused women, battered women, shelters, Judge Angela Carpenter, Domestic violence, Domestic violence awareness month, Beverly Prentiss Domestic Violence Victim Empowerment Program, Vicksburg

Stuck in the Senate with the Violence Against Women Act, a bill that would help domestic violence victims

“When I knew I had to leave,” Victoria told me, “I only had my two kids. No money. No place to go.” Victoria is not the real name of a woman in her early 30s, a native Mississippian who had left an abusive partner.

Perspective, Story Behind The StoryKatherine MitchellJune 29, 2021VAWA, Violence against women act, Biden, Women leaving, abused women, battered women, shelters, crime victims, VOCA, senate, house, Chuck Shumer, Dick Durbin, Crime Victims Fund Act, Pat Toomey

How the 2021 Violence Against Women Act Will Help Take Guns From Abusers Guilty of Domestic Violence

As Pheonecia Ratliff’s story shows, the main threat to victims of domestic violence is the prevalence of guns. Once her abusive ex-boyfriend bonded out of jail in Canton in May 2020, he could have gotten one from a friend or relative.

Perspective, Story Behind The StoryKatherine MitchellJune 15, 2021Violence against women act, VAWA, domestic homicide, domestic violence, domestic abuse, Phoenecia Ratliff, firearms, gun violence

Missing or Murdered in Indian Country, Gone Without Justice

Resplendent in her Southern Ute of Colorado garb, Diane Millich told a harrowing story. In the late 1990s, at 26, she had married a White man who she said slapped, kicked, punched and abused her emotionally, beginning on the third day of their marriage.

Perspective, Story Behind The StoryKatherine MitchellMay 4, 2021Diane Millich, tribal police, Native American, Violence against women act, VAWA, Native women, Native children, Alaska, domestic homicide, domestic violence, domestic abuse

A Mass Shooting Often Starts At Home Against a Woman

A new week, a new mass shooting. Just seven days after a gunman killed eight people in Atlanta, including six women of Korean or Chinese descent, another shooter killed 10 people in a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.

Perspective, Story Behind The StoryKatherine MitchellMarch 29, 2021domestic violence, abuse, women killed, Asian Americans, mass shooting, Atlanta, Boulder shooting, columbine, femicide, Rachel Louise Snyder, Violence against women act, the boyfriend loophole

Will the Violence Against Women Act Go On Saving Lives?

The Violence Against Women Act, first passed in 1994, makes possible local advocates’ ability to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.

Perspective, Story Behind The StoryKatherine MitchellMarch 2, 2021Violence against women act, domestic abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, VAWA, The House, Ann McLane Kuster, Congress, Lizzie Fletcher, abuse, President Biden, Oliphant Decision, Senate, MCconnell

A Clergyman Who Spoke the Words ’Domestic Violence’ Publicly

On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Stacey Riley is CEO of the Gulf Coast Center for NonViolence Inc. The nonprofit center is the largest program for victims of domestic violence in Mississippi: It runs a shelter in Biloxi, which houses up to 44, and another in Pascagoula with 16 beds.

Perspective, Story Behind The StoryKatherine MitchellDecember 15, 2020Black women, black victims, sexual assault, Gulf Coast Center for NonViolence, domestic violence, Stacey Riley, covid-19, Violence against women act, shelters, Iman Abdul-Mu'Min, Biloxi Islamic Center, clergy, Mississippi