C4FE Economic Insights #3
Unveiling Bureaucratic Hurdles in Addressing the Indigenous Women Crisis
The Center for Free Enterprise has recently released its latest C4FE Economic Insights.
On this issue, Karla Hernández discusses the bureaucratic hurdles in addressing the indigenous women crisis in U.S. reservations.
Native American reservations face some of the harshest societal issues: high poverty rates, inadequate healthcare services, and the highest rates of crime committed against Indigenous men and women. The murder rate of women on some reservations exceeds the US. national average, and Indigenous women are going missing at crisis levels. In a survey conducted by the First Nations Development Institutes (FNDI), 37 percent of respondents say that “The high rate of missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW),” is the most salient issue on tribal reservations, with both Indigenous men and women sharing about the same percentage of concern.
Different policies and programs have been initiated on behalf of the U.S. federal government and its agencies to address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis. For example, The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in 1995 created The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), a component of the DOJ that focuses on legislation related to violence against women. This January 2024, the OVW released a program targeting Indian Tribal Governments who are seeking financial assistance to implement programs and services focused on preventing and responding to violence against women, such as domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking within Native American communities.
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