...members of the Violence Against Women Research and Outreach Initiative share a commitment to applying research to pressing public policy issues...

All of the core faculty within the Violence Against Women Research and Outreach Initiative share a strong commitment to engaging in outreach activities...It means working directly with community members...

The Violence Against Women Research and Outreach Initiative is a multidisciplinary group of faculty at Michigan State University committed to engaging in community-based, collaborative research and evaluation that is highly rigorous while also having significant practice and policy implications at local, state, national and international levels.

The purpose of the intitiative is to provide a vehicle for MSU faculty and students to effectively collaborate with each other and with community members to engage in a variety of research and outreach activities.

VAWROI faculty are also committed to training and mentoring the next generation of violence against women researchers. To that end we provide numerous and varied educational and employment opportunities to undergraduates, graduate students and new investigators.

The group understands 'violence against women' to include all forms of abuse targeted toward women or girls, and includes but is not limited to sexual abuse, rape, intimate partner abuse (including woman battering), elder abuse, incest, sexual harassment, stalking, femicide, trafficking, prostitution, and dowry abuse.

We endorse the UN General Assembly's 1979 definition of discrimination against women to include "...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."