Biden Announces White House Advisor on Violence Against Women
EmailABC News' Karen Travers reports: Vice President Biden announced today that Lynn Rosenthal will be the White House adviser on Violence Against Women, a new position created to work with the president and vice president on domestic violence and sexual assault issues. Joining Biden for the announcement was Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor and assistant to the president for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Engagement. Rosenthal most recently served as the executive director of the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence and has focused on domestic violence issues like housing, state and local coordinated community response, federal policy, and survivor-centered advocacy. From 2000-2006, she served as the executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence and played a key role in the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2000 and 2005. Biden called the work Rosenthal will do in this new position "incredibly consequential” and joked that he had already given her an assignment on her first day. “And Valerie looked at me and was like, give her a break!” he said to laughter from the assembled audience of advocates against domestic violence. The vice president said that when he and President Obama discussed who they wanted to take on this role, they said it had to be someone who would "literally, not figuratively" go to bed every night thinking about what can be done to protect women from violence. Biden said there are 48 million reported cases of violence done by an intimate partner and said that while there's no count on how many are unreported, more women are coming out of the shadows. "The worst imprisonment in the whole world is to be imprisoned in your own home," the vice president said. "The most vicious of all crimes are domestic crimes." He said the Obama administration wants to put this issue higher on the agenda than it has been in recent years, but said that was not a “knock or criticism” of the Bush administration. Biden said that in announcing this new advisor role "an ambition, desire has come true." Biden said that the group the administration has assembled to work on this issue, led by Jarrett and Rosenthal, is “one hell of a team.” He quickly corrected himself and said “heck of a team.” When the audience laughed he said that is why he should just stick to the teleprompter. — Karen Travers
Rick Santorum Sweeps 3 States 
Pentagon to Open Additional Jobs to Women
Is there already a Presidential panel on womens’ and girls’ issues?
Posted by: MayBee | June 26, 2009, 2:01 pm 2:01 pm
I thing Bill Clinton would be willing to serve.
Posted by: pauldia | June 26, 2009, 2:20 pm 2:20 pm
I wonder, can we have a team to oversee biden? this man is such a moron. As for the article itself, it is a shame this was not more activley in play a few years ago…..if so, Chris Brown would not have gotten away with a mere slap on the back-of-the-hand.
Posted by: kmday | June 26, 2009, 2:23 pm 2:23 pm
Reverse-sexism!
Where is the panel on violence against men!!!!!
That’s so unfair. I voted for Obama, but this goes too far.
I am fuming with resentment!!!! All men should join me by voting for a Republican in the next election.
Posted by: borneo | June 26, 2009, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
LOL borneo…are you serious? I mean, I have unfortunatly witnessed a lot fo female committed domestic partner violence to which is increasing with prevalancy…..but I am wondering if you are joking here….. =)
Posted by: kmday | June 26, 2009, 2:56 pm 2:56 pm
I get it.
The Obama/Biden administration is going to hire so many people for overlapping committees, czars and advisory panels that they will have “saved or created” millions of jobs in DC.
BTW ~ “Obama/Biden” looks weird. Obama’s more of a Diana Ross type diva and Biden’s more Florence Ballard.
Posted by: WhereWasThePress? | June 26, 2009, 3:13 pm 3:13 pm
Is this because you don’t consider honour killings, forced marriages, & female circumcision as violent acts against women or is it because we should pretend it doesn’t exist or is it because of political correctness & being afraid of ”offending” people who have some rather abominable religious beliefs?
Is it OK to talk about wife-beating as a religious obligation, punishing rape victims for their ”crime” or stoning for adultery? Or isn’t this considered violence either?
How about forcing women to wear burkas – you know in France they plan to make it illegal.
So why not talk about it openly?
Posted by: Terry | June 26, 2009, 3:40 pm 3:40 pm
This is fraud.
There is just as much woman on man violence as the reverse. Many, many academic studies show this.
However, TRUE experts in the field of domestic violence ARE NOT ALLOWED to testify in front of congress when VAWA funding comes up for renewal.
Posted by: David | June 26, 2009, 3:42 pm 3:42 pm
“Provides two hundred studies showing that women are equally as violent as me”
Exceopt like most right wing bs if you look closely at the studies they say nothing liek that.
“Telephone interviews using a modified version of the CTS was obtained from 6,934 men and 7,278 women regarding prevalence and consequences of partner violence. Authors report that women, over the course of their lives were 2.9 times more likely to report being physically assaulted than men”
Results reveal that women were “over 40% of the offenders in lethal domestic assaults
Posted by: Ryan C | June 26, 2009, 4:12 pm 4:12 pm
“Posted by: borneo | Jun 26, 2009 2:30:27 PM”
Stephen Colbert should be jealous.
Posted by: Ryan C | June 26, 2009, 4:14 pm 4:14 pm
A 32-nation study of violence against dating partners by university partners found that about a third had been violent, and most incidents of partner violence involve violence by both the man and woman, according to Murray Straus, founder and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. The second largest category was couples where the female partner was the only one to carry about physical attacks, not the male partner.
Straus’ new research also found that dominance by the female partner is even more closely related to violence by women than is male dominance. These results call into question the widely held belief that partner violence is primarily a male crime and that when women are violent it is self defense.
“In the 35 years since I began research on partner violence, I have seen my assumptions about prevalence and etiology contradicted by a mass of empirical evidence from my own research and from research by many others,” Straus said. “My view on partner violence now recognizes the overwhelming evidence that women assault their partners at about the same rate as men. However, when women are violent, the injury rate is lower.”
Posted by: David | June 26, 2009, 5:51 pm 5:51 pm
Almost 25% of the people surveyed — 28% of women and 19% of men — said there was some violence in their relationship. Women admitted perpetrating more violence (25% versus 11%) as well as being victimized more by violence (19% versus 16%) than men did. According to both men and women, 50% of this violence was reciprocal, that is, involved both parties, and in those cases the woman was more likely to have been the first to strike.
Violence was more frequent when both partners were involved, and so was injury — to either partner. In these relationships, men were more likely than women to inflict injury (29% versus 19%).
When the violence was one-sided, both women and men said that women were the perpetrators about 70% of the time. Men were more likely to be injured in reciprocally violent relationships (25%) than were women when the violence was one-sided (20%).
That means both men and women agreed that men were not more responsible than women for intimate partner violence. The findings cannot be explained by men’s being ashamed to admit hitting women, because women agreed with men on this point.
Posted by: David | June 26, 2009, 5:55 pm 5:55 pm
The drama triangle is a psychological and social model of human interaction in transactional analysis (TA) first described by Stephen Karpman, which has become widely used in psychology and psychotherapy. The model posits three habitual psychological roles (or roleplays) which people often take in a situation: The person who is treated as, or accepts the role of, a victim
The person who pressures, coerces or persecutes the victim, and
The rescuer, who intervenes out of an ostensible wish to help the situation or the underdog. (Note that the rescuer role is one of a mixed or covert motive, not an honest rescuer in an emergency; see below) As the drama plays out, people may suddenly switch roles, or change tactics, and others will often switch unconsciously to match this. For example, the victim turns on the rescuer, or the rescuer switches to persecuting. The covert purpose for each ‘player’ is to get their unspoken psychological wishes met in a manner they feel justified, without having to acknowledge the broader dysfunction or harm done in the situation as a whole. As such, each player is acting upon their own selfish ‘needs’, rather than acting in a genuinely adult, responsible or altruistic manner. The game is similar to the melodrama of hero, villain, and damsel in distress (such as Dudley Do-Right, Snidely Whiplash, and Nell Fenwick). In TA, the drama triangle is sometimes referred to[1] in the context of mind games such as: – Why Don’t You/Yes But; If It Weren’t For You; Why does this Always Happen to Me?; See What You Made Me Do; You Got Me Into This; Look How Hard I’ve Tried; I’m Only Trying to Help You; and Let’s You and Him Fight.
Posted by: Joe Najhodag | June 26, 2009, 5:55 pm 5:55 pm
the problem with this new appointment is that they continue to fund a solution that only looks at half of the problem. which, of course, will result in no real progress.
Posted by: David | June 26, 2009, 6:01 pm 6:01 pm
I was in a relationship with a woman years ago who one morning just started in on me psychologically. She was very verbally cruel. She claimed to have been physically abused by her ex-husband. At some point in her verbal attack I realized her “game” I sat down and started to laugh out loud. She became even more angry. I told her I have been through this BS before with my younger sisters. The neener neener get him all angry and go hide behind Mom and say “He’s doind it again!” I told her that the more she spoke to me like that the more I felt really sorry for her Ex. I said “Sorry Not Going There” I told her that if she had no more respect or loyalty than that then It was over. I asked her to leave. I was just extremely glad I had no children with her. She would have made me miserable and blamed me for everything –NOT.
Posted by: Joe Najhodag | June 26, 2009, 6:04 pm 6:04 pm
Good for you Joe!!
Posted by: David | June 26, 2009, 6:07 pm 6:07 pm
There are guys that get abused everyday and dare not to speak because of the stigma coming with it. Sure women do get abused, beaten and humiliated but the law should be blind and not gender biassed. Biden should keep paying attention to the teleprompter , he has this special brain disabiitiy off putting the foot on his mouth.
Posted by: Frank | June 26, 2009, 6:22 pm 6:22 pm
The one thing that is never brought up in these chats is this. The judicial system has takem the female side of the story and turns a deaf ear towards the men, automatically faulting them. They seem blind to those women that get mad and make a call to the police just to get the man out of the house. they come, you go and no one actually looks at the truth, just a knee jerk reaction. Then you fgo through life with a black mark on your permanent record, even when you prove that she was lying and get the case dismissed. No one cares they just look down at you, where is the justice? Why do liars get to win?
Posted by: jc | June 26, 2009, 7:04 pm 7:04 pm
liars get to win because women have a physical majority of votes and all those in congress know this. they know who butters their bread. and they focus on winning their next election. this is why term limits should be standard fare in congress and senate. lifetime politicians (like Biden) need to be culled from the pack. these people, ultimately are a drain on the system because they focus on the next election rather than being productive. this new appointment wins favors and votes.
Posted by: David | June 26, 2009, 7:13 pm 7:13 pm
Interesting. Wonder if this experiment will be even as “successful” as the programs to end poverty, drug abuse, child abuse…
Nah, they’ll just do scholarly research and a couple of public education series. And pat themselves on the back.
Abuse — by both sides — exists. No social engineering program is going to change that. Only PEOPLE can change it, not governments. And they don’t want to, not really. No law can stop a man from beating his wife to death. No law can stop a woman from leaning into a car and shooting her husband and child before shooting herself.
No laws at all.
Posted by: Eyes Open | June 26, 2009, 7:47 pm 7:47 pm
More brochures need to be added to ladies and mens rooms at libraries, doctors offices, PTA meetings, auto dealerships, restaurants, church vestabules about abuse and give the hotline number and names of places to call to help them get out of their situation immediately. Many make the mistake of going home and then are hurt again or even killed by the abuser. Help them take the first step.
Posted by: Arlene McMahon | June 26, 2009, 7:47 pm 7:47 pm
Help them take the first step.
Posted by
Arlene McMahon | Jun 26, 2009 7:47:38 PM
——
Carry them out of a burning building, and they run right back in.
I know. I KNOW. No brochures, posters or government agency is going to make a difference. God, I wish it could.
Posted by: Eyes Open | June 26, 2009, 7:54 pm 7:54 pm
Eyes Open . . .
Government programs to counter drunk driving and cigarette smoking have had very good results in a number of countries. Next up will be obesity.
Posted by: danita | June 26, 2009, 7:59 pm 7:59 pm
Thank you President Obama and Vice President Biden. This issue has been long overdue, and we thank you for pushing this terrible illness in our society forward. Please help Texas Attorney General Abbott understand this is a problem he has ignored and he doesn’t get “child support” issues especially from those who are of his same party affiliation. He doesn’t care for others who aren’t of his agenda. We can’t have law makers in Abbott’s position remain in control of women and children’s lives as he has so poorly done in his tenure. He either needs to step down, resign, or be looked into for his and other AG’s inadequacies. Please stop AGs like him abusing powers towards women and children. He supports child support evaders who are of the military who abuse their power as well. It has to stop now.
Posted by: Elle | June 26, 2009, 8:18 pm 8:18 pm
Eyes Open . . .
Government programs to counter drunk driving and cigarette smoking have had very good results in a number of countries. Next up will be obesity.
Posted by: danita | Jun 26, 2009 7:59:16 PM
—
Trying not to be snarky…
I’m a fat smoker who thinks these programs are “easy target look what we did” garbage. Tax smokers, fine the obese, take fast food away from kids, people still beat their family members and rape babies. People are still using drugs and still poor and pumping out the next generation of “children of poverty.” And still driving drunk and killing families, then standing weeping in court and getting away with it.
Posted by: Eyes Open | June 26, 2009, 8:23 pm 8:23 pm
“I know. I KNOW. No brochures, posters or government agency is going to make a difference. God, I wish it could.”
And just how do you know that for sure? If some of us believe it might, do you think the cost of some brochures and posters is too much to possibly save lives?
Posted by: Skip | June 26, 2009, 9:04 pm 9:04 pm
A ‘Czarina’ no doubt. The one-sidedness of Obama is disturbing and telling. Does he not believe that ALL human beings (men, women, and children) deserve the right to be shielded from domestic violence? Or just women should be protected, ad nauseam? A feminista in the White House, aren’t we lucky?
Posted by: Banderman | June 26, 2009, 9:15 pm 9:15 pm
And just how do you know that for sure?
Posted by skip
—
Has it worked? Do the posters in the public restrooms work? The commercials? The public school training sessions, the sensitivity trainings for adults, the billboards… it’s all already out there.
Those who “believe it might” are often the same people who turn away when they hear or see, so they don’t have to deal with it. Someone, somewhere will come and save the day. Someone else.
Spend the money. I don’t have any choice about how the government spends money. Have at.
And next time, pick up the phone. Notice the hurt. ACT on the pretty words in the brochures. THAT saves lives, at least temporarily.
Or go back to your safe, serene world and see it on the news, rally, urge the government to fix it and stop the pain, applaud new laws and czars and agencies. And don’t tell me I don’t know for sure.
Posted by: Eyes Open | June 26, 2009, 9:36 pm 9:36 pm
“I’m a fat smoker who thinks these programs are “easy target look what we did” garbage.”
Right.
Posted by: danita | June 26, 2009, 10:08 pm 10:08 pm
“Has it worked? Do the posters in the public restrooms work? The commercials? The public school training sessions, the sensitivity trainings for adults, the billboards… it’s all already out there.”
If anyone has reached out for help–and many have including women I know–then it HAS worked. This is a battle that never ends. The next generation of abusers is being born right now and if you think we’re going to resign ourselves that it’s better to do nothing to try and help the victims you are very mistaken. To me there is little difference between those who call the numbers on the poster and those who put the poster up so they were inspired to call when they needed to. We all must do our part.
Posted by: Skip | June 26, 2009, 10:18 pm 10:18 pm
I’d be happy if they added in a few programs to help battered victims and their children get out of their abusive homes. That seems to be why abuse has such a neverending cycle. The victims are often isolated by the abusers and have no means of escape.
There should also be more laws towards protecting the children involved. I have seen far too many cases where children end up with the abuser. Most victims will stay just to keep their children.
As a survivor of childhood abuse, it warms my heart to see that more steps are being taken to break the cycle of abuse. Please, if you are living at home with an abuser and need someone to talk to, do a web search for DailyStrength. Its a wonderful forum that has support groups for just about any problem.
Posted by: Ciora | June 26, 2009, 10:49 pm 10:49 pm
…if you think we’re going to resign ourselves that it’s better to do nothing to try and help the victims you are very mistaken.
Posted by skip
—
If you interpret my posts as saying I’m resigned to the cycle and think nothing should be done, you are very mistaken. I just don’t expect a government that can’t handle ANYTHING well to “cure” the abusers or stop the abused from going back. And I mean THE government, not the Administration du jour.
I DO WHAT I CAN. Twenty years ago, last year, last month, last week, yesterday, today, and again tomorrow. I don’t get weekends off. I could just hand a government brochure over to the woman who’s lived 41 years in a hell that’s left her a trembling, shredded wreck, or I could take action. Guess which one I chose today? I could tell a friend who’s being abused that she should leave her home, or I can call the police. Guess which one I chose twenty years ago. I could step aside when a man tells me it’s his God-ordained right to knock his wife down when she gets above herself, or I can step up and stop him. GUESS WHICH ONE ten years ago. I don’t put up posters, so apparently I don’t care.
And you?
Posted by: Eyes Open | June 26, 2009, 11:32 pm 11:32 pm
Valerie Jarrett…now there’s an unqualified lump. But she’s Obama’s mommy figure so he keeps her around.
Posted by: MBNA Joe | June 27, 2009, 12:38 am 12:38 am
To stop domestic violence, we need to understand the cycle. While the men who hit wives or girlfriends are easily villified as monsters, little is said about the women who run back to these men time and time again.
There is a strange dynamic in these relationships; she needs to be hit as much as he needs to hit her. In some odd form of love, she sees his devotion in the eruption of anger. “If I didn’t care so much, I wouldn’t get mad”.
I know I’m using the most common scenario, I know that women hit their spouses and boyfriends.I know that gay men hit each other, as do lesbians.
I chose to go with the 98% of all cases.
Build all the shelters you want. Change the law so that the abuser automatically goes to jail.
The majority of abused women will go from the shelter right back to him.
They will bail him out of jail.
I don’t know of any government program that taps into a person’s mind, and changes their expectations from a partner.
I am a woman, and I’ve seen friends go right back after being beaten and thrown around. Usually, the only reason the police are called is to get him to calm down.
We are going to have to treat this just as we do drug and alcohol abusers. We can’t help them until they realize they need to change.
Posted by: MisElaineous | June 27, 2009, 1:07 am 1:07 am
MisElaineous, well-said. But most people don’t want to hear that. They want to hear that the government has a neat new department that will make people see the light and be better citizens.
Posted by: Eyes Open | June 27, 2009, 8:38 am 8:38 am
“I don’t put up posters, so apparently I don’t care.”
I said that we all need to do our part, so if you are doing yours I’m not saying you don’t care. Just don’t knock the people putting up the posters. They’re doing their part. If you’re some kind of libertarian and think government is useless that is another debate entirely. I think it is the purpose and role of government to protect our citizens. And finally Yes I’ve spent my time in emergency rooms and talking to counselors and meeting with policemen and sitting in courtrooms and sheriff’s departments getting PFAs and changing locks and sitting down with kids trying to explain about awful things that happened and why, and I can tell you firsthand that alot of this amateur speculative psychoanalysis posted by others here does absolutely nothing to refute the fact that victims need all the help they can get from government or anywhere else.
Posted by: Skip | June 27, 2009, 9:34 am 9:34 am
To skip
Kudos to you for “doing your part,” and…
“Some kind of libertarian”? No, I think for myself. But it’s nice that you haven’t forgotten to make party affiliation an important part of this issue. Really. After all, it’s only people in “the other party” (whichever one you’re not in) who commit crimes or don’t care about [fill in issue/problem].
Hopefully I’ve worded this in a way that’s acceptable to the moderators… this time.
Posted by: Eyes Open | June 27, 2009, 1:30 pm 1:30 pm
Why is domestic abuse against men ignored? When I was in college my girlfriend at the time stabbed me in the neck with a pencil because she thought I was cheating on her. The pencil pierced a vein and I was bleeding pretty bad. I ended up in the hospital for about six hours. I pressed charges and she accepted a plea for a ‘disorderly conduct’. She was given a $175 fine. In NY, a disorderly conduct is a simple violation — much like a speeding ticket. My friends laughed hysterically. Talk about a double standard!
Posted by: Cabaret Voltaire | June 28, 2009, 8:21 am 8:21 am
To MissElaineous:
You Write….
‘I know I’m using the most common scenario, I know that women hit their spouses and boyfriends.I know that gay men hit each other, as do lesbians.
I chose to go with the 98% of all cases’
98%? Where do you get that figure? According to the CDC, it happens to men much more then you think. Men are MUCH less likely to report an incident and when they do, they’re usually not taken very seriously.
Keep in mind feminists who peddle ridiculas DV stats (1&3 women will be a victim of domestic violence) are including verbal and emotional abuse. While I certainly agree those are legitimate forms of abuse, claims of non violent abuse can be very subjective. When is it abuse, and when is he just being ‘mean’ to you.
I hate to say it, but the VAWA is feminist pork and fuels a very profitable victim industry.
Posted by: Cabaret Voltaire | June 28, 2009, 8:47 am 8:47 am
There is a strange dynamic in these relationships; she needs to be hit as much as he needs to hit her. In some odd form of love, she sees his devotion in the eruption of anger. “If I didn’t care so much, I wouldn’t get mad”.
Posted by: Chân Rết | June 28, 2009, 10:49 am 10:49 am
i learned it is wrong to beat up girls 30 years ago.while a republican was in office.imagine that!
Posted by: russell | June 29, 2009, 12:20 pm 12:20 pm
Thank you for this. It’s long overdue. I am struggling to start over after leaving my abuser, and it gives me hope to see attention being paid to the issue.
It is such a complicated issue, so many pieces to the puzzle. It’s not just physical abuse, either. Financial abuse is a tool my abuser used to great effect to keep me there. Psychological abuse, too. I’d love to see more done to try to help survivors like me start over, to have a chance at an abuse-free life.
Posted by: Lena | June 29, 2009, 12:57 pm 12:57 pm
Let’s start guessing about headlines for next year! “Reverend Wright Crowns Obama Caesar!”
Posted by: Eric Robinson | June 30, 2009, 11:23 am 11:23 am
Why didn’t you guys use the term “Czar”? ‘Trying to soften the appearance of your man’s power grabs?”
Posted by: Eric Robinson | June 30, 2009, 11:25 am 11:25 am
We have more CZARS than Russia ever did, but then we are MORE COMMUNIST too! This fraudulent president is going to bankrupt the USA just with the PAYROLL of all these Czars! THIS IS A COMPLETE TAKEOVER OF THE US GOVERNMENT! He’s basically made the Congress totally useless – they have no power or oversight over these Czars!!
Posted by: rtstella | June 30, 2009, 3:36 pm 3:36 pm