TDH Booklet4 - Texas Association Against Sexual Assault

Executive Summary
Executive Summary
This Strategic Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women in
Texas was developed as a tool to inform Texas stakeholders about
recommendations and strategies to make primary prevention of
sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking a public health
priority in the state. The report outlines results from a participatory
strategic planning process led by the Bureau of Women’s Health at
the Texas Department of Health (TDH), involving key actors
interested in improving the well-being of Texans by preventing these
serious health crises. Primarily funded by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and
Control, this strategic plan serves as a blueprint for action in Texas.
A Strategic Plan to
Prevent Violence Against
Women in Texas was
developed as a tool to
inform Texas stakeholders
about recommendations
and strategies to make
primary prevention of
sexual assault, domestic
violence, and stalking a
public health priority in
the state.
Texas is the second largest state in the nation in both
population and land size. The state has a diverse population – U.S.
Census Bureau data (2000) indicate that Latinos/Latinas comprise
over 50 percent of the population in 33 Texas counties. This report
publicizes significant findings about the current status of sexual
assault, domestic violence and stalking in Texas, emphasizing the
unique experiences of Latinas who experience these types of
violence. The report summarizes primary prevention efforts
underway in the state, prevention goals and objectives, and
concrete suggestions for how to address related priority issues. This
strategic plan clearly identifies violence against women as a public
health crisis that can be prevented using a public health approach,
an approach that has been successful in addressing other complex
health problems. The plan serves as a resource, providing
background information including a framework for understanding
causes for the violence, points of intervention, risk and protective
factors and what current research points to as promising
components of effective prevention efforts.
Findings
Violence against women presents a complex and costly
problem for the state of Texas. Recent statewide prevalence studies
report nearly 2 million Texans have been sexually assaulted in their
lifetimes and fully 47 percent of Texans experience domestic
violence in their lifetimes. In addition, 113 females were murdered
by intimate partners in Texas in 2001, resulting in a state homicide
rate for this type of crime well above the national average. The
costs are extremely high, particularly for the public health sector,
and current resources cannot support those who suffer the many
A STRATEGIC PLAN TO PREVENT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN TEXAS
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