
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990                   TAG: 9006210427
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/12   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

VIOLENT CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN BECOMING EPIDEMIC, PANEL TOLD

Almost four years after two men with razor blades slashed her face, former New York model Marla Hanson is still haunted. "It's changed the way I look at the world forever," she told a Senate committee Wednesday. "It's not a safe place anymore."

Nancy Ziegenmeyer, who was abducted and raped in a Des Moines, Iowa, parking lot in 1988, told the committee that the trauma she suffered also has lingered. "Even in my community, a place I've spent my whole life, I often fear for my safety and the safety of my family."

The two women's testimony came as the Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on legislation to fight what many view as an epidemic of violent crime against women. During the past decade, the number of reported rapes has increased nearly four times as fast as the total crime rate - with 92,000 forcible rapes committed in 1988, or an average of one every six minutes, according to the committee.

Violence against women within their homes is also on the rise, according to government statistics, which show that 3 million to 4 million women are beaten each year and more than 1 million of those women seek medical help for injuries caused by the battering.

Violent sexism - or the committing of violent crimes against women solely because of their sex - has become frighteningly common, said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Judiciary Committee chairman, who this week introduced legislation to reform federal and state laws and provide new federal funds to combat the problem.

"There is a need for the national psyche to acknowledge there is something horribly wrong and for the law to reflect that attitude," Biden said.

The proposed legislation would double the penalties for rape and create new sanctions for repeat sex offenders. It also would provide up to $300 million in new federal funds to help local law-enforcement officials combat rape - with two-thirds of that amount targeted at high-risk localities - and offer new funds to encourage local prosecution of sex offenders.

The proposed legislation would double federal funds for women's shelter, provide new financial incentives to states to encourage prosecution of battering spouses, and authorize $25 million to help municipal law-enforcement systems develop domestic violence units. The measure also creates new federal penalties for spouse abusers who cross state lines to continue abuse.

The legislation also would redefine violence against women as a gender-motivated crime - which, like crimes inspired by racism, deprives women of their civil rights. Classifying violence against women as a bias-related crime would allow women to bring their cases to the federal court system as well as sue their attackers for damages.

by CNB