Department of Justice Awards $150,000 to the City of New Orleans to Develop and Strengthen Criminal Justice and Community Partnerships to Address Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, and Stalking

U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced today that, as part of 44 awards totaling over $26 million in funding through the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women’s Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program, the City of New Orleans was awarded $150,000 grant.  The City will use the grant to continue an established process to evaluate and assess the criminal justice system’s response to domestic violence criminal cases and a unified agreed upon protocol that will hold accountable a system response that adheres to the six foundational principles of the Blueprint for Safety model.

The Blueprint for safety is a set of plans for interagency case processing in the criminal justice system, anchored in six foundational principles:

• Adhere to an interagency approach and collective intervention goals;
• Build attention to the context and severity of the abuse into each intervention;
• Recognize that most domestic violence is a patterned crime requiring continuing engagement with victims of abuse and offenders;
• Ensure sure and swift consequences for continued abuse;
• Use the authority of the criminal justice system to send messages of help and accountability; and
• Act in ways that reduce unintended consequences and the disparity of impact on victims and offenders.

“Sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking are serious crimes that require a robust criminal justice system response in coordination with community based organizations and victim service providers,” said Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates. “This program challenges the whole community to work together to identify barriers and develop solutions that enhance victim safety and hold offenders accountable.”

“I thank the Office on Violence Against Women for this grant award,” stated U.S. Attorney Polite.  “It will assist the City of New Orleans in its efforts to combat domestic violence, which often appears as a root cause of the city’s larger violence issues.”

About the Office on Violence Against Women:

Created in 1995, the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) provides federal leadership in developing the Nation’s capacity to reduce violence against women through the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and subsequent legislation. OVW administers financial and technical assistance to communities across the country that are developing programs, policies and practices aimed at ending domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. To learn more, visit www.justice.gov/ovw.