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The Dartmouth
July 17, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Campbell speaks on violence

Bonnie Campbell, director of the Violence Against Women Office at the Justice Department, on Friday urged women to speak out about incidences of violence against them.

Campbell is currently working to pass the Violence Against Women Act, which was part of the 1994 Crime Bill. She spoke before a small audience in Collis Common Ground.

"These are not women's issues, they are our issues," she said in a speech titled "The 1994 Crime Bill: Implementing the Violence Against Women Act."

Campbell said criminals gain strength when crimes against women are not publicized. "Silence becomes a powerful part of the conspiracy," she said.

She said women hurt themselves by not speaking out and stressed the importance of women helping other women discuss their situations in order to "give a voice to the most voiceless of victims."

Campbell also stressed the criminal aspect of domestic crimes. "We tend to focus on the relationship instead of the crime," she said.

She said she has been working to shift the focus back to the crime by implementing many programs to aid women victims nationwide over the past 20 years.

Many advances to protect women have been made in the past two decades, she said, including the elimination of the marital rape exemption and the enactment of rape shield laws to protect the privacy of victims.

Violence and crimes against women have become the norm in society, Campbell said. The increase in violent crimes has occurred so gradually that society adjusted to it, she said.

But "we can't afford to adjust [our expectations] down anymore," she said.

Women who are assaulted at night are often blamed for carelessness because they chose to run by themselves or go out in the dark, she said.

"That is the wrong set of questions to ask," Campbell said.Instead, society must ask why the rapists or criminals are out at night, she said.

While serving as Iowa's first female attorney general from 1990 to 1994, Campbell led numerous efforts to protect women from violence, including writing one of the first anti-stalking laws to pass in the United States.

Campbell also started a program in Iowa to circulate wanted posters with pictures of men who failed to pay child support. "Just the threat of appearing on a wanted poster increased voluntary child support payments drastically," she said.

She said at last count there was $34 billion in unpaid child support nationwide.

Campbell said before addressing welfare, the government must deal with child support because many women on welfare would be less dependent on the government if they received the child support due to them.

As attorney general, Campbell also worked to protect victims of incest and battered women in Iowa.

After speaking about the importance of focusing on the criminal aspect of wife abuse, Campbell said she was approached by a woman in a grocery store who was inspired by Campbell's message.

The woman said after hearing spousal abuse was a serious crime, she felt empowered to leave her husband.

Campbell said her greatest achievement is this feeling of support she has offered to other women.