The Politics and Policies of Federal Efforts to Reduce Domestic Violence in Indian Country

This article examines the role of the media, Congress, and advocacy groups in targeting federal efforts to reduce and eliminate domestic violence in Native American communities. We use a longitudinal approach to examine how hearings, and witness affiliations played a role in federal efforts to reduce domestic violence in Indian country. We conducted a search of the New York Times Index, available online through ProQuest Historical to track media attention. We used the Congress.gov website (formally Thomas.loc.gov) to track legislative activity and the Congressional Information Service (CIS) Index to Committee Hearings to track hearing activity. Our findings show that there are six coalition groups that are creating dialogue about domestic violence in Indian country. The first coalition includes members affiliated with major tribal groups. The second is made up of street level bureaucrats. Government witnesses including local, state, and federal legislators comprise the third group. The fourth group is made up of an expert coalition of academics and researchers. The fifth coalition includes law enforcement officials concerned with federal encroachment on state police powers. Conservative Republican legislators who oppose federal legislation that seeks to provide specific assistance to Native Americans makes up the last group. This article also highlights the importance of using hearings for a better understanding of how the advocacy coalition framework is associated with specific policy changes that target domestic violence in Native American communities. Because of the groundwork laid by policy entrepreneurs, policy changes were made in each of the reauthorizations to expand resources and services for Native American domestic violence survivors.