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Judicial Patriarchy And Domestic Violence: A Challenge To The Conventional Family Privacy Narrative, Elizabeth Katz

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

According to the conventional domestic violence narrative, judges historically have ignored or even shielded “wife beaters” as a result of the patriarchal prioritization of privacy in the home. This Article directly challenges that account. In the early twentieth century, judges regularly and enthusiastically protected female victims of domestic violence in the divorce and criminal contexts. As legal and economic developments appeared to threaten American manhood and traditional family structures, judges intervened in domestic violence matters as substitute patriarchs. They harshly condemned male perpetrators—sentencing men to fines, prison, and even the whipping post—for failing to conform to appropriate husbandly behavior, while …