The murder of Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994 "has elevated domestic violence to a new level on the national consciousness, changing forever . . . the way it is viewed by the public" (Vobejda, 1994, p. 32). According to Carden (1994), "violence is a culturally transmitted 'disease' of epidemic proportions in the contemporary United States, and domestic violence (i.e., emotional and/or physical abuse between members of a nuclear family/intimate system) is one of the most insidious expressions" (p. 539). Finally, perhaps not only the public, but the police, prosecutors, legislators, and the courts, as well, will begin to comprehend that "between one-fifth and one-third of all women will be physically assaulted by a partner or ex-partner during their lifetime" (Birns, Cascardi, & Meyer, 1994, p. 50).
Ingrassia and Beck (1994) assert that "Americans often shrug off domestic violence as if it were no more harmful than Ralph Kramden hoisting a fist and threatening: 'One of these days, Alice . . . Pow! Right in the kisser!'" (p. 26). And according to Peterson (1992), "feminist scholars argue or imply a direct relationship between the degree of male dominance in a society and the extent of violence toward wives" (p. 98).
Nevertheless, the ill treatment of women has been reinforced by ancient legal doctrines which equated women with various chattels, as well as legal sanctions condoning the use of force against wives. According to Kurz (1992), the Supreme Court of Mississippi, in 1824, ruled that a husband may "exercise the right of moderate chastisement in cases of great emergency" (p. 27). Despite the fact that women are no longer legally subordinate to men, "our culture continues to exhibit a hierarchy of power arranged by gender. Men overwhelmingly occupy positions of greater influence, control, and prestige in economic, political, and social domains" (Birns, Cascardi, & Meyer, 1994, p. 50).
Indeed, the plight of ba...