The mission of the Violence Against Women (VAW) program is to promote the safety of women and girls. The program seeks to improve knowledge and understanding of teen dating violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking; and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system’s response to these crimes. The mission is accomplished through the following objectives:
1. Identifying the causes and consequences of VAW;
2. Evaluating promising prevention and intervention programs;
3. Rapid communication of research results; and
4. Supporting effective collaboration among a multidisciplinary set of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the conduct of research.
NIJ works closely with a number of stakeholders in this area to inform research and evaluation in the area of violence against women including the Office on Violence Against Women, Office for Victims of Crime, and Department of Health and Human Services. NIJ has supported research in the area of violence against women for over four decades through annual solicitations, research workshops, and dissemination efforts. A compilation of NIJ’s work in this area can be found in the Crime, Violence & Victimization Research Division’s Compendium of Research on Violence Against Women: 1993-2015*, which highlights over 300 projects supported through NIJ’s program since 1993. More information on NIJ’s support of research in 2 the areas of teen dating violence, intimate partner violence, stalking, and sexual violence can be found on topic specific webpages:
Violence Against Women and Family Violence Program
Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women
Intimate Partner Stalking
Priority areas are documented on the web pages and/or in summaries of research meetings and workshops**.
Although proposals broadly related to the aforementioned violence against women topics are acceptable under this solicitation, NIJ has outlined priority areas of interest below related to teen dating violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls. Applicants are encouraged to consider proposals that fall within NIJ’s priority areas.
*See https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/223572/223572.pdf
**See http://www.nij.gov/events/Pages/research-meetings.aspx#violence