The following timeline was created by CNN and outlines the history of the government’s involvement in Domestic Violence.
Timeline:
June 19, 1990 – S. 2754, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is introduced in Congress by Senator Joseph Biden, but it is not enacted.
June 1991 – The American Medical Association publishes recommendations that physicians routinely inquire about possible abuse.
January 21, 1993 – Biden re-introduces the bill.
September 13, 1994 –President Bill Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act into law within the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. It must be renewed every five years. The law also establishes the Violence Against Women Policy Office and the Violence Against Women Grants Office (now the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women).
February 21, 1996 – The National Domestic Violence Hotline receives its first calls, and gets 4,826 calls its first month.
1999 – The Office of Violence Against Women is created by a merger of the Violence Against Women Policy Office and the Violence Against Women Grants Office.
October 28, 2000 – The Violence Against Women Act of 2000 is reauthorized with new provisions and signed into law by President Clinton. The new provisions include the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and expanded measures for battered immigrant women.
August 2, 2003 – The hotline receives its millionth call.
January 5, 2006 – The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 is signed into law by President George W. Bush, with new provisions on dating violence, Native American women and the use of DNA fingerprinting.
April 28, 2009 – The National Domestic Violence Hotline receives its two millionth call.
April 26, 2012 – The Senate votes on S.1925 to reauthorize VAWA with expanded measures to include battered illegal immigrant women, Native American women and the LGBT community.
March 7, 2013 – S.47, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 is signed into law by President Barack Obama, with new provisions. The new provisions address the needs of undocumented immigrant women, Native American women, the LGBT community and teen dating violence and reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
March 13, 2013 – Biden announces the Obama Administration’s Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative as part of the reauthorization of the Violence against Women Act.
July 2013 – The National Domestic Violence hotline receives its three millionth call.
January 2017 – US President Donald Trump signs executive order “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.” This may negate the VAWA provisions proposed to help immigrants in 2013.
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