Domestic Violence in America

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Step 1
Domestic violence in the United States is a form of violence expressed by one partner against another partner in the context of an intimate relationship (a). It is an important problem. The government has passed The Violence Against Women Act of 1994. This act gives $1.6 billion towards investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women. The law imposes mandatory restitution on those convicted and civil redress if the prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted. The law also set up the Office on Violence against Women in the Department of Justice. In the year 2000 the Supreme Court in US v Morrison struck down a Violence Against Women Act provision giving women the right to sue their attackers in federal court. There was resistance from the American Civil Liberties Union which had expressed concerns about the law saying that the increased penalties were rash and the pretrial detention was against the US Constitution.

Step 2
One in every four women experience domestic violence in their lifetime. 85% of domestic violence victims are women. The women are victimized by someone they knew. Women of the age group between 20-24 years of age are the greatest risk of non fatal intimate partner violence. Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police. One third of females who are murdered according to police records are murdered by an intimate partner. In most cases the women were beaten up before killing her(b). Intimate partner violence leads to mental health care visits. There are very few shelters in the United States for battered women. Between three and four million women in the United State are beaten in their homes by their husbands, ex-husbands, or male lovers. In case of domestic violence, women are more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than men. Battering is the single most important cause of injury to women, more significant than auto accidents, rapes, or muggings (c). The emotional abuse inflicted by the batterers may be more difficult to treat than physical injury. Women claim that battered women suffer more hypertension, heart disease, and arthritis when they grow old. Domestic violence leads women to lose their jobs because of absenteeism due to ...