Mere Talk Won’t Make Life Any Safer for Women : Violence: Congress must pass the legislation before it, so that no loopholes in state laws can prevent fair and full protection.

Warnings about violence on television will soon be beamed into living rooms across the country. For women and girls, warnings about violence won’t be anything new. They’ve heard them most of their lives.

When statistics reveal that one woman is raped every six minutes and one woman is battered every 15 seconds, it is clear that warnings on how to ward off potential threats aren’t going to solve the problem. We must act.

If we are going to stem the tide of violence against women, legislation that treats rapes and domestic violence as serious crimes is a critical and long overdue first step. As an example, current federal sentencing guidelines punish rape less severely than robbery.

There are some signs that violence against women--scenarios for so many TV movies--will finally be given the serious legislative commitment this problem so desperately needs. In May, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Violence Against Women Act, a key piece of legislation designed to safeguard the rights of women and their families. It is one of the few congressional measures that crosses ideological lines and has broad bipartisan support. Originally introduced by Sens. Barbara Boxer and Joseph Biden, it also has Edward Kennedy and Orrin Hatch among its 64 co-sponsors. A full Senate vote could come before Congress goes home this fall.

What makes the Violence Against Women Act so effective in attacking the problem is its status as federal legislation. Without the Violence Against Women Act, women are still subject to loopholes in state laws that don’t offer fair and full protection. Testimony to the necessity of federal intervention is the endorsement of the bill by more than 40 state attorneys general.

To zero in on creating more safeguards for women and their families, the bill would provide for stepped-up law-enforcement measures; more lighting and emergency phones in parks and transit systems; a review of sentencing policies for sexual assault crimes against women and girls; additional informational services for women fleeing domestic violence; education of judges and court personnel about victims of rape and domestic violence; education of young people about domestic violence, and funding for rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters.

A pivotal issue in the legislation is its civil-rights provision. The provision says something many don’t want to admit: Violence against women is often motivated by a person’s gender and not by individual circumstances. That is why many more women are raped than men.

As Mary Becker, a University of Chicago Law School professor, so aptly says, “All members of a group targeted for discriminatory violence are forced to place restrictions on where they go and how they look and act in order to try to minimize such violence. Violence and the fear of violence can profoundly shape who one is as well as what one does . . . thus there are powerful reasons for regarding violence linked to group identity as a violation of a civil right and to remedy such discrimination.”

No one can deny that women in our society have to alter their behavior to ensure their safety. The warnings they heed are commonplace: They often don’t jog in the park after the sun goes down and they walk with their keys or can of Mace when they cross an empty parking lot. When women think of their homes being broken into, they aren’t only concerned about being robbed; they know they also may be raped.

Because of the threat of violence, women often give up valuable opportunities. They don’t go to the school library or physics lab at night, and they turn down jobs that require work or travel in isolated areas. There are countless examples of how women--as a class--live differently than men do because of the threat of violence based solely on their gender.

Violence motivated by gender is not merely an individual crime or personal injury but a form of brutal discrimination, an assault on a publicly shared ideal of equality. When half of our citizens are not safe at home or in the streets because of their sex, all of society suffers. This is clearly a civil-rights issue.

The Violence Against Women Act was first introduced in 1990. This year, it has moved out of committee and is ready to go to the Senate floor. The House version, with 186 sponsors, should follow soon after. We can keep on talking about rape and domestic violence; but talk is not going to make the problem go away. Putting strong laws on the books will.