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SPONSOR: |
Pinto |
DATE TYPED: |
|
HB |
|
||
SHORT TITLE: |
Native American Domestic Violence Services |
SB |
426 |
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|
ANALYST: |
Weber |
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APPROPRIATION
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
||
FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
$150.0 |
|
|
Recurring |
General
Fund |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Responses
Received From
Office of Indian Affairs
Department of Health
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
Senate Bill 426
appropriates $150,000 from the General Fund to the Office of Indian Affairs to
provide emergency shelter and services to Native American victims of domestic
violence.
Significant
Issues
The Office of Indian Affairs indicates there are over 40,000
Indians living in
The Department
of Health offers a similar picture, reporting that currently there are no domestic violence
shelters off reservation/pueblo land dedicated solely to providing services to
Native American women and their families. No general fund is appropriated to
specialized, culturally appropriate services.
The only domestic violence services specifically for Native American
women are limited.
According to the June 2002 publication
“Incidence and Nature of Domestic Violence in New Mexico III, Analysis of 2001
Data, of the 19,181 domestic violence reports 12% (2,373) were Native American
and 13% (2,225) were Native American suspects. Not all incidents are reported
to law enforcement for a variety of reasons; therefore, the number is estimated
to be higher.
A Bureau of Justice Statistics Special
Report, March 2001, indicate between 1993 and 1998, Native Americans sustained
violence at the highest per capita rate (119 victimizations per 1,000 American
Indians age 12 or older). For the same
period, Native Americans women were victimized at rates higher than those of
all other females – 23 American Indians per 1,000 persons. Among Native American women giving birth
between 1997 and 1999 in
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The appropriation of $150.0
contained in this bill is a rcurring expense to the General
Fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of Fiscal
year 2004 shall revert to the General Fund.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
The Health Department
adds, according to “Violence Against Women in New Mexico an Assessment (2000)”,
the complexity and diversity of tribal legal codes addressing violence against
women; culturally specific intervention programs; gendered complimentary
relationships between men and women as defined by long-held tribal values; and
communal rather than individualistic tribal values makes domestic violence
services extremely complex to deliver effectively. Many Native American are
reluctant to seek services outside their reservations and pueblos. However, it
is also very difficult to seek services on the reservation or in the pueblo
because they cannot adequately remove themselves from the proximity where the
domestic violence is experienced. For
domestic violence services to be effective, the women and their children must
have a safe and culturally appropriate environment in which to heal and be
reintegrated into the community.
MW/njw