National Sexual Violence Survey Released

Click here to be directed to CALCASA’s NISVS Page. On Wednesday, Dec. 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS). This is an ongoing, nationally representative survey that assesses experiences of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence among adult women and men

I love going on facebook. As much as I try to deny it, I love it. It is the way I connect with friends who I can’t see everyday, share important news pieces, learn about social events, it is the way that I feel connected to the world around me. But facebook and I have also had a few tense moments that have caused me to swallow the giant lump in my throat and think critically about my engagement on the site. One of those moments was when facebook suggested that I become friends my abusive ex-partner. I wanted to scream at facebook (yes, the computer, the site, the whole company), and just felt like they should have known better!! How could this happen?! Six years later, and I felt as though no time had passed, I was instantly just as hurt and just as angry. New York Times online Opinionator column addressed this very issue of social media and it’s power to reconnect to potentially triggering individuals in recent weeks.

On January 13, the New York Times published an opinion column written by Dorri Olds called “Defriending My Rapist”. Olds describes how a facebook connection with her rapist had lead her to confront him about the feelings that she still held on to about the situation.

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Recently published in the Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, “Exposure to Partner, Family, and Community Violence: Gang-Affiliated Latina Women and Risk of Unintended Pregnancy examines the relationship “between gang involvement and reproductive health, and the pathways through which childhood, family, and relationship violence exposure may lead to unintended pregnancy”.

The authors studied 20 young females with known gang histories of gang-involvement, recruited through a gang-intervention program in Los Angeles, CA. The article provides detailed interview transcriptions that provide insight into the 20 young women’s exposure to violence, pregnancy experiences, access to knowledge about reproductive health, male partner pregnancy intentions and sexual coercion, male partner physical and sexual violence, exposure to interparental violence and child abuse, as well as gangs and sexual violence.

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In Touch with Teens: Peace Over Violence’s primary prevention

January 20, 2012

posted in: prevention

(21 mins) Lili Herrera of Peace Over Violence in Los Angeles describes the comprehensive primary prevention programs her agency offers in Los Angeles. Their curriculum In Touch with Teens is a foundation for a wide variety of activities. Peace Over Violence has adopted this programs to serve gang-affiliated youth. Listen: Interview with Lili Herrera about

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Stop Telling Women How to Not Get Raped

January 19, 2012

posted in: prevention

Zerlina Maxwell writes in her recent article Stop Telling Women How to Not Get Raped in Ebony Magazine that Holding women and girls accountable for preventing sexual assault hasn’t worked and so long as men commit the majority of rapes, men need to be at the heart of our tactics for preventing them.  Let’s stop

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Mobilizing men to prevent sexual violence in a rural community

January 18, 2012

posted in: prevention

(21 mins) Wanda Powless, Kim McArthur and Mark McDanial of Oregon’s Klamath Crisis Center describe their work to engage men to prevent sexual violence in a rural community. PAWS for Change (Prevention, Awareness, Wellness and Strength) is a collaboration of local organizations in Klamath County to engage men and boys as allies in an effort

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Visioning BEAR Circle

January 17, 2012

posted in: prevention

(14 mins) Strong Oak Lefevre from the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition describes the community-based prevention work of Visioning Bear Circle to prevent sexual violence in Native American communities. Listen: Interview with Strong Oak Lefevre about community-based prevention work

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