The Laws Behind Domestic Violence

“Domestic violence is a criminal matter and needs to stay in criminal court,… Too often, judges see charges of domestic violence as a ploy to get custody and send the case to family court.” – Catherine Campbell.

The Federal government has enacted many domestic violence laws to protect those that are married or in a domestic partnership from being victimized and abused. There are specific laws that deal with stalking, protection, traveling to commit violence, and violence against women. These laws are dealt with specifically on the federal level, and then there are state specific laws as well.

In 1994, Congress joined the fight against domestic violence by enacting legislation as part of the crime bill. Historically, the government did not have jurisdiction over domestic violence related crimes that occurred in the community. These types of crimes were dealt with in the local and state levels. The Congress of the United States recognized that crimes against women and children were posing a serious problem. Congress came up with legislation to address the shortcomings called the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This legislation created laws to address some types of domestic violence crimes on the federal level.

The precedent that was set by Congress in 1994 spread to the fifty states also. The states were asked to pass harsher laws dealing with crimes related to domestic violence. As time has passed, laws have been created to address other issues such as stalking, internet stalking, internet related crimes such as communicating threats, and so on.

Laws have been passed to fund help for victims and their children. The government has also made grants available to help states implement more support programs and networks to add victims of this type of crime. There is a national hotline that has also been created to connect victims with someone in their local area to help them with intervention and information.

The federal government has also created programs that rank how states are doing in the fight against dating violence, and are funding more shelters. The government is taking this fight very seriously and is backing their stance with funding and support. How successful have these new laws been? Well this depends upon who you ask. Official statistics show that the domestic violence laws put into place are making a dent in the amount of crimes being reported and being committed. Advocates claim that the instances of domestic violence have increased and are continuing in an upward trend.

We are making progress in the fight in our communities by making more programs and making help available to victims. We are not making progress in decreasing the amount and severity of instances of violence. More funding should be given to rehabilitate the perpetrator of this violence to end the cycle. Adding more severe domestic violence laws to punish might curb some violence but not all.