Key Federal Laws

Major federal laws addressing sexual violence:

P.L. 109-248, The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
Enactment of the federal Adam Walsh Act marks an important step forward in efforts to protect our most vulnerable citizens against predators. This law gives law enforcement new tool to help protect our nation's children from sexual and other violent crimes and fight the spread of child pornography.
— download P.L. 109-248 (PDF, 185KB)

Senate Resolution 537, U.S. Senate resolution honoring RAINN, 2006
Introduced by senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Joe Biden (D-DE); passed full United State Senate unanimously during the 109th Congress.
— download S. Res. 537 (PDF, 33KB)

P.L. 108-405, The Justice for All Act of 2004
The Justice For All Act of 2004 enhances protections for victims of Federal crimes, increases Federal resources available to State and local governments to combat crimes with DNA technology, and provides safeguards to prevent wrongful convictions and executions.
— download P.L. 108-405 (PDF, 129KB)
— Fact Sheet on The Justice for All Act of 2004 (prepared by the Office for Victims of Crime at the U.S. Department of Justice)

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, P.L. 103-322, contains the original Violence Against Women Act (VAWA 1994), which authorized signifcant federal funding for activities to help prevent and investigate violence against women. Congress revised and extended many of the activities that are authorized under VAWA when it passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, P.L. 106-386; this 2000 law also instituted greater statutory protections for trafficking victims. Congress revisited VAWA yet again in 2005, when it passed the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA 2005), PL. 109-271.
— download P.L. 103-322 (PDF 8.59MB)
— download P.L. 106-386 (PDF 524KB)
— download P.L. 109-162 (PDF, 593KB)

The Campus Security Act of 1990, Title II of Public Law
This landmark law calls for most public and private colleges and universities across the country to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. In 1999, the law was amended and renamed "The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act" in honor of a 19-year-old college student, Jeanne Ann Clery, who was raped and murdered in her Lehigh dorm room in 1986. The Clery Act has been amended several more times, most recently in 2000, to require institutions of higher education to make information available to the campus community about the possible presence of registered sex offenders on campus.
— Clery Act as amended through 2008
— Original Campus Security Act text(1990; Public Law 101-542, Title II)