[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 8, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S9972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TAKE BACK THE NIGHT ALLIANCE

  Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the efforts of the 
Take Back The Night Alliance, an organization in the metropolitan 
Louisville, Kentucky area that is working to end a problem that affects 
us all in one way or another: violence against women. On Thursday, 
September 10, as part of Sexual Assault Awareness and Domestic Violence 
Awareness months, the Alliance will for the first time in its nine-year 
history kick off a month-long series of events that will create a 
greater awareness of the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that 
perpetuate these specific kinds of crimes.
  The statistics of domestic violence are sobering, and I'll give you 
just a brief sampling here:
  A woman is physically abused every nine seconds in the United States.
  In Kentucky alone, 80,000 women were victims of domestic violence in 
1997.
  One out of four females will be sexually assaulted before they reach 
the age of 18.
  For every rape, 10 others go unreported.
  Husbands and boyfriends commit 13,000 acts of violence against women 
in the workplace every year.
  The total healthcare costs of family violence are estimated at $44 
million each year.
  Take Back The Night rallies have been held throughout the United 
States since 1978. In Louisville, the National Organization for Women 
has been the organizing force for this event for the past nine years, 
but over 200 civic organizations, government agencies and businesses 
have joined this year to sponsor a wide range of activities drawing 
attention to the problems faced by women who are victims of domestic 
violence, rape and sexual assault. One group will collect previously 
owned business clothing for abused women returning to the workforce. 
Another will sponsor safety and prevention workshops in area hospitals 
and companies. And yet another will provide materials on date rape and 
sexual assault to be placed in bars and in women's restrooms.
  Louisville and Jefferson County have been recognized as leaders in 
the field of domestic violence, and I am heartened by the strong 
outpouring of support that the Take Back the Night Alliance has 
received from the community. We all know that such success does not 
happen by accident, and I would like to commend the Alliance leaders 
for their dedicated efforts to ease the plight of women who are victims 
of domestic violence, sexual assault and rape.

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