
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 22, 1995                   TAG: 9503230062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

VIOLENCE TO WOMEN TARGETED

Trying to mobilize support for last year's embattled crime law, President Clinton on Tuesday named a former Iowa attorney general to head the new Violence Against Women office and announced the first $26 million in grants to protect women.

With violence against women growing significantly faster than the overall crime rate, ``It's a bigger threat than cancer or car accidents,'' Clinton said in an East Room ceremony.

He appointed Bonnie Campbell, former Iowa attorney general, to be the first director of a special Violence Against Women Office in the Justice Department that was authorized in the crime law.

``If children aren't safe in their homes, if college women aren't safe in their dorms, if mothers can't raise their children in safety, then the American dream will never be real for them, no matter what we do in economic policy,'' Clinton said. ``This is key to everything else we want to do.''

The $26 million in grants, also authorized in the crime law, will go to all 50 states. Each state can receive up to $426,000 to bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims' services related to violence against women. Clinton called it a down payment on $800 million to be released over six years.

Republicans have not threatened the crime bill's provisions to combat violence against women but the White House fears a GOP proposal for a $5 billion cut in the broader crime law trust fund could affect women's programs.

``We can't stand by to see it depleted,'' said Attorney General Janet Reno.

Clinton acknowledged that the crime law is not the ``end-all and be-all, the ultimate answer'' to the nation's crime problem, but said it was providing needed money for important anti-crime efforts.

``I will not permit the crime bill to be undercut,'' he declared. ``It is just starting to make a difference in the lives of Americans,'' particularly women and children.

Campbell, in accepting the appointment, recalled her horror at seeing a friend of hers who was regularly abused by her husband.

``There's no doubt in my mind that this experience of witnessing the destruction and the pain in that family is the reason I am here today and I care so much about this fight,'' she said.

As Iowa attorney general, Campbell wrote one of nation's first anti-stalking laws and solicited private contributions to raise public awareness about campus violence.

by CNB