History of the Legal Respnse to Domestic Violence

I. A Brief Overview of the Legal Response

Historically, female victims of domestic violence have sought help and protection from “a variety of institutions, including family, church, and community”(Fagan 5). In the United States, legal reforms have come in three distinct waves, recorded as far back as 1640. In the first wave of legal reform, “the Puritans of colonial Massachusetts enacted the first laws anywhere in the world against wife beating” (Cohen

Kivel puts his theories into practice through the batterer’s program he is affiliated with called the Oakland Men’s Project. Started in 1979, the goals of the program do not focus on the punishment of batterers like the state does, but instead opts to treat the problem of domestic violence ideologically. Their stated goals aim to challenge the cycle of violence, empower individuals towards community, promote an understanding of men’s gender ideas, support the struggle of each person against societal inequality, provide the young with information and confidence, promote alternatives to violence, confront violence of local institutions and social practice, and model the role that men can take to the break cycle. Through these goals, Kivel strives to change the conception that, in society “individual change is all that is possible…the educational, economic, and family systems are a given” (Kivel 237). Focusing efforts on effecting ideological change, Kivel strives for societal cooperation to eliminate violence.

Theories regarding domestic abuse revolve around the topics of violence and control. Simply stated, “men who abuse women do so to exert power and control over them” (Lemon 272).

The general failure of state systems to protect women made more federal laws necessary when weak and apathetic enforcement resulted from case law and state statutes. For example, The Family Violence Services and Prevention Act of 1984 provided funding for 23 law enforcement training projects to provide better response to the domestic violence calls, while the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a part of the federal Crime Victims Act, addressed problems of violence by: allocating funds, made changes in criminal law, and added a civil law solution by allowing women to sue assailants for damages. In addition VAWA allocated money for domestic violence education programs, special prosecution units, and funding for victim services such as hotlines, safe houses, and advocacy programs.

Kivel utilizes an understanding of mutual oppression by the political system of power to be a unifying factor amongst classes in order to remind people that we all have the same struggle together. Kivel stresses this sense of community to have people overcome a fear of others, which he believes, keeps people separated, isolated, and unsupported (Kivel 82). Through the alliances formed from this mutual understanding, Kivel aims to stop the economic violence.

Some topics in this essay:
Conflicts Nevertheless, Kivel Cohen, IV Directions, Victims Act, Court DCDVC, Project Started, Theory Practice, House California, Abuse Act, Men’s Project, domestic violence, cycle violence, legal sanctions, research evaluation, victim services, domestic violence” fagan, violence” fagan, current conflicts, justice system, violence kivel, domestic violence”, understanding men’s gender, individuals towards community, criminal justice system, conclusive evidence deterrent,