Strengthening the US National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence: Making Perpetrators Visible

The 2023 publication of the first US National Action Plan (NAP) on Gender-Based Violence (GBV), promising an approach grounded in civil and human rights, is a momentous step. Despite ambitious objectives for responding to GBV, the NAP largely evades the empirical evidence that most perpetrators are men and boys. I contend that its prevention goals are undermined by lost opportunities to interrogate patriarchal masculinities. By examining US data about victimization and perpetration, I propose ways to align the plan more closely with international human rights approaches to GBV.