BILL ANALYSIS
SB 273
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 30, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Dave Jones, Chair
SB 273 (Corbett) - As Amended: June 22, 2009
SENATE VOTE : 34-0
SUBJECT : Domestic violence.
SUMMARY : Revises definitions of domestic violence (DV) to
ensure that specified State programs serve both male and female
victims of DV. Specifically, this bill :
1)Removes female-specific references from the definition of DV
for the purposes of the Department of Public Health (DPH)
Domestic Violence Program (DVP) and the California Emergency
Management Agency (Cal EMA) Comprehensive Statewide Domestic
Violence Program (CSDVP).
2)Revises the definition of "shelter-based" to mean an
established system of services where victims of DV (rather
than battered women) and their children are provided emergency
housing, as specified.
3)Revises the definition of "emergency shelter" to mean a
confidential or safe location that provides emergency housing
on a 24-hour basis for victims of DV (rather than battered
women) and their children.
4)Requires the DPH DVP to conform with specified
anti-discrimination requirements.
5)Removes references to women and children from the description
of services that DVP-funded programs may provide.
6)Makes conforming changes to the responsibilities of the DPH DV
Advisory Council.
7)Removes references to women and children from the requirement
that DPH fund an agency to provide technical assistance and
training to local DV programs.
8)Makes legislative findings and declarations concerning the
Battered Women Protection Act (BWPA), DV, the effects of DV,
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the State's interest in acknowledging the difference in the
quantitative and qualitative differences between male and
female DV victims, and the intent of the Legislature that DPH
serve all victims of DV and that resources are distributed to
where there is the most need.
9)Makes other minor, technical changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the BWPA, which requires DPH to administer a grant
program to battered women's shelters to expand existing
services, create new services, or establish new battered
women's shelters to provide emergency shelter, transitional
housing, legal or other types of advocacy, and other support
services to battered women and their children. This program
is now called DVP.
2)Establishes the CSDVP within Cal EMA (then Office of Emergency
Services) to provide local assistance to existing service
providers, maintain and expand services as needed, and
establish a directed program for establishing DV services in
underserved and unserved areas. Requires Cal EMA to provide
technical and financial assistance to local DV agencies in
implementing 24-hour crisis hotlines; counseling services;
emergency shelter, food, clothing, and transportation;
hospital emergency room protocol and assistance; peer
counseling; court and social service advocacy; legal
assistance; community resource and referrals; and, other types
of assistance.
3)For the purposes of the DPH DVP and the Cal EMA CSDVP, defines
DV to mean the infliction or threat of physical harm against
past or present female intimate partners, including physical,
sexual, and psychological abuse against the woman, and to be
part of a pattern of assaultive, coercive, and controlling
behaviors directed at achieving compliance from, or control
over, that woman.
4)Under the California Constitution, prohibits a person from
being denied equal protection of the laws.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
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COMMENTS :
1) PURPOSE OF THIS BILL . According to the author, this bill
is needed because existing statutes establishing DV programs
which fund services only for women and their children have
been found to be unconstitutional. The author states the
California Court of Appeal recently ruled in Woods v. Horton
(167 Cal. App. 4th 658) that the DV shelter program statutes
violate the state's Equal Protection Clause and
anti-discrimination statutes because abused women and men are
"similarly situated" with regard to DV. The court therefore
ruled that the statutes should be revised to make state
funding for DV shelter services gender-neutral and to extend
the statutory benefits of DV services to men.
2) DOMESTIC VIOLENCE . According to the DPH DVP, in
California, in 2006, 115 women and 26 men were killed by
spouses, ex-spouses, intimate partners, or former partners.
The California Department of Justice reported 176,299
DV-related calls in 2006. Data from 2003 suggest that more
than half of these calls were for incidents involving weapons.
The 2003-04 California Women's Health Survey shows that 8.6%
of respondents had experienced some form of DV, including
actual physical violence, threatened violence, sexual abuse,
and physical or emotional control, in the past year. Women
who reported experiencing physical DV were also nearly three
times as likely to report frequent mental distress in the past
month as women who had not experienced DV.
While most available research and statistics focus on female
victims of DV, a large number of men are also victims of DV.
In 2006, the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), reported that nationally, each year, men are
the victims of about 2.9 million physical assaults by current
or former intimate partners, while women experience about 4.8
million DV-related physical and sexual assaults. CDC also
reports that according to national data from 2004, among
deaths related to DV, 25% of victims were males and 75% were
females.
3) DPH DVP . According to DPH, the purpose of the DVP is to
support domestic violence agencies in providing comprehensive
DV services to victims of DV and their children; reduce DV in
California; and, ensure access to services for non-traditional
users of DV services (such as people with disabilities,
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substance abuse problems, and members of gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender communities). The DVP provides
grants to 94 DV agencies that provide a variety of services,
including but not limited to 24-hour crisis hotlines, business
centers, emergency shelter, transitional housing, legal
assistance with restraining orders and custody disputes, court
and social advocacy, counseling for women and their children,
household establishment assistance, and community resource and
referral services. The DVP also provides technical assistance
and training to local agencies to serve all victims of
domestic violence, regardless of gender. The DVP is funded by
the State General Fund and fines and fees collected from
convicted perpetrators of DV crimes. The DVP was unable to
provide information on how many of the DV agencies it funds
provide services to male DV victims.
4) CAL EMA CSDVP . According to Cal EMA, Cal EMA funds 85
local, shelter-based DV agencies throughout California which
provide emergency shelter, immediate crisis response
intervention services following a DV incident, and advocacy
and accompaniment services throughout the criminal justice and
civil legal process for DV victims and their children. Funds
for DV shelter-based programs in fiscal year 2008-09 come from
the following sources: State General Fund, federal Victims of
Crime Act, federal Family Violence Prevention Program, and the
federal Violence Against Women Act. Cal EMA states that
because federal law requires grantees to provide services to
both women and men, all Cal EMA-funded DV agencies already
provide services to both women and men.
5) WOODS V. HORTON . In Woods v. Horton , filed October 14,
2008, the California Court of Appeal ordered DPH and Cal EMA
to provide grants under the DVP and the CSDVP, respectively,
to organizations that provide services to DV victims,
regardless of gender. In Woods v. Horton , four men who were
taxpayers or victims of DV and the daughter of one victim
challenged several statutes, including those governing the DPH
DVP, Cal EMA CSDVP, and programs for inmate mothers, on equal
protection grounds, because these programs provide grants for
DV services for women and their children, but not for men and
their children. The trial court denied the plaintiffs'
petition, finding that they failed to show that men were
similarly situated to women for purposes of the statutes.
However, the Court of Appeal reversed the judgment in part,
finding that the gender-based classifications in the DVP and
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CSDVP (but not the inmate programs) violated equal protection
under the California Constitution, as male victims of DV are
similarly situated to female victims for purposes of the
programs. The court ruled that where the State's purposes are
as well-served by a gender-neutral classification as by a
gender-specific classification, the State cannot be permitted
to classify on the basis of gender. The Court of Appeal
further found that the lower court's argument, that equal
protection applied to group rights rather than individual
rights, and that a greater need for services based on greater
numbers of female victims justified the existing statutes,
does not meet the requirement of a compelling state interest
in support of a gender classification.
The Court of Appeal found that the appropriate remedy was to
reform the affected statutes by invalidating the exemption of
males and extending the benefits to men, and directed DPH and
Cal EMA to provide grants under the DVP and CSDVP to programs
that provide services to victims of DV, regardless of gender.
The court held that services offered to men need not be
identical to those offered to women; given the greater number
and severity of injuries women incur, the court acknowledged
that it may be appropriate to provide more and different
services to women and their children.
6) SUPPORT . The sponsor of this bill, the California
Partnership to End Domestic Violence; numerous local DV victim
service agencies; and, the Domestic Violence Practicum of the
Berkeley School of Law, University of California at Berkeley
write in support of this bill that while at least 85% of
California's battered women's shelter programs provide
services to both men and women, this bill will ensure that
state funding is used to provide critical services to all
victims, regardless of gender. The Los Angeles County
District Attorney's Office states it supports this bill in
order to ensure that shelters providing services to DV victims
continue to receive appropriate funding. The American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO
writes it supports this bill because it updates the
perspective of DV as an act that is not exclusively committed
against women, and notes that in California, 17 males were
killed by their partners in 2006 and 18 males were killed in
2007. The California Catholic Conference argues that DV cuts
across cultural, economic, and social boundaries and that we
must work together towards the common goal of ensuring the
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safety of victims. Planned Parenthood Affiliates of
California writes in support that all victims of DV should
have access to safe shelter as needed.
7) SUPPORT WITH AMENDMENTS . The National Family Violence
Legislative Resource Center (NFVLRC) writes it agrees with the
general features of this bill, but recommends two amendments.
First, NFVLRC requests an amendment that would require
research to be based on multiple sources of data, including
large representative sample surveys, public health studies,
dating surveys, and clinical studies involving victims and
perpetrators of both genders. Second, NFVLRC requests that
this bill require the DV Advisory Council to include at least
one representative for male victims of DV and at least one
representative with expertise in DV from a multi-ethnic and
cross-cultural perspective who acknowledges the needs of both
male and female victims. The National Coalition for Men, San
Diego Chapter (NCFM-SD) states that while it supports this
bill, this bill reinforces false gender stereotypes that
marginalize violence perpetrated against males. NCFM-SD
requests that the findings be amended to include information
showing that males are as likely as females to be victimized,
and that this bill clearly state that all victims of DV are to
be provided with services, including outreach, regardless of
gender.
8) RELATED LEGISLATION .
a) AB 503 (Furutani), pending in the Senate, deletes
the sunset on the advisory council which provides consultation
to the DPH DVP.
b) AB 1003 (John A. Perez), pending in the Senate,
revises a grant program which Cal EMA administers for the
development and support of DV programs and services for the
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community by stating
that funded activities are not limited to a specified list of
services.
9) TECHNICAL AMENDMENT . Page 5, line 1: insert
"Comprehensive Statewide" before Domestic Violence Program.
10)CHAPTERING OUT . This bill and AB 503 (Furutani) both amend
the same code sections. Each should be amended to avoid
chaptering out the other, should both bills be enacted.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (sponsor)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
California Catholic Conference
Crime Victims United of California
Domestic Violence Practicum, Berkeley School of Law, University
of California at Berkeley
Interval House
Lake Family Resource Center
Laura's House
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Marjaree Mason Center
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Rainbow Services
Sojourn Services for Battered Women and Their Children
Su Casa - Ending Domestic Violence
Tri-Valley Haven
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Allegra Kim / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097