Tribal Jurisdiction

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Program Overview

TJ

Tribal Jurisdiction

Throughout their lifetimes, nearly 1 in 2 American Indian and Alaska Native women will suffer physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking by an intimate partner. However, until the passage of  VAWA 2013, tribal courts could not exercise jurisdiction over crimes committed by non-Indian domestic violence abusers against their Indian spouses, intimate partners, and dating partners on tribal land. The historic provision within VAWA 2013 formally recognized the inherent power of participating tribes to exercise special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction (SDVCJ) over both Indians and non-Indians who commit crimes of domestic violence or dating violence, or violate certain protection orders in Indian Country. Accordingly, VAWA 2013 authorized the Tribal Jurisdiction Program, which first received appropriations in FY 2016, and is designed to assist Indian tribes that have jurisdiction over Indian Country in exercising SDVCJ.

Through this grant program, Indian tribes receive support and technical assistance for planning, developing, and implementing changes in their criminal justice systems necessary to exercise SDVCJ. The Tribal Jurisdiction Program encourages the coordinated involvement of the entire tribal criminal justice system and victim service providers to incorporate systemic change that ensures victim safety and offender accountability.

Progress Reporting Update

July – December 2023 Period

The deadline for the July – December 2023 performance report is January 30, 2024.

Tribal Jurisdiction grantees no longer complete their progress report via SurveyMonkey. Instead, grantees need to fill out the PDF reporting form which must be downloaded from this website (just look for the Reporting Form box below). Then submit the fillable PDF form, as well as your Grant Goals & Objectives document, directly to JustGrants. For guidance on how to upload a document into that system, please see the JustGrants website’s Training: Performance Reporting page.