Domestic Violence in the U.S.

This paper will examine the issue of domestic violence in the United States. In particular, the paper will focus upon violence perpetrated by men against their female partners.. The first part of the paper will attempt to define domestic violence, examining the various types and degrees of such violence. The second part of the paper will look at the history of attitudes towards domestic violence in the United States. This section will focus on the evolving views of domestic violence and the theories on how it should be treated. The third part of the paper will discuss the problems of the law regarding domestic violence and enforcing the law in these situations. This section will look primarily at the specialized provisions which have been enacted and the possible effectiveness of the law in this area. The last part of the paper will discuss the issue of nesting treatment programs for abusers in the criminal justice system. The focus here will be upon mandatory treatment for convicted abusers and whether such treatment is effective.

A Definition of Domestic Woman Abuse

This paper will define all forms of abuse/assault of women interchangeably. The main characteristic of all of these forms of abuse/assault is that they occur within a domestic/sexual relationship between a man and a woman, irregardless of marital status. The focus of this paper is upon violence perpetrated by men against women because that is the most commonly reported form of do

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ic than most. They argued instead that abused women stay in abusive relationships largely because they have not other choice. Until the 1970s, a woman could not realistically expect to economically support herself. Even today, most women who leave abusive relationships to live on their own run the risk of living in poverty. Isolated from friends and family, they have few resources. Moreover, many experts believe that abused women have been terrorized into "learned helplessness" by repeated abuse. Many women realize that leaving an abuser can actually trigger an escalation in violence. (Schmidt am Busch, 1995, pp. 4-6; Pleck, 1987, pp. 182-187, 192-193; Dutton & Waltz, 1995, p. 17; Harlow, 1991, p. 5). Problems with the Law Regarding Domestic Violence and its Enforcement Strictly speaking, there is little or no distinction in criminal law between violence involving the family and that involving strangers, except in cases of rape. Until the 1970s, most American jurisdictions did not recognize forcible sexual intercourse between a husband and wife as rape. (Zorza, 1992, p. 50). The difference in other cases between situations involving strangers and those involving domestic relationships could only come in enforcement of

Category: Psychology - D