Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 22 of 22

Full-Text Articles in Law

David Peterson Mar, What Trouble I Have Seen: A History Of Violence Against Wives, Cynthia Grant Bowman Apr 2000

David Peterson Mar, What Trouble I Have Seen: A History Of Violence Against Wives, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


No Women At The Center: The Use Of The Canadian Sentencing Circle In Domestic Violence Cases, Rashmi Goel Jan 2000

No Women At The Center: The Use Of The Canadian Sentencing Circle In Domestic Violence Cases, Rashmi Goel

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

For Canadian Aboriginal women, domestic violence is pervasive. A report by the Ontario Native Women’s Association indicates that eighty percent of Aboriginal women surveyed had personally experienced family violence. In this context, Rashmi Goel looks at the use of sentencing circles to respond to wrongdoing by Aboriginal people. Current Aboriginal justice initiatives emphasize a return to traditional values and processes, manifested in one way in the sentencing circle. Yet, states Goel, such initiatives fail to restore Aboriginal women to their honored place. Contemporary Canadian sentencing circles exemplify this problem; they further injure victims in several respects. Hence, Goel argues that …


A Matter Of Principle And Consistency: Understanding The Battered Woman And Cultural Defenses, Sharan K. Suri Jan 2000

A Matter Of Principle And Consistency: Understanding The Battered Woman And Cultural Defenses, Sharan K. Suri

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

To adequately explain and argue why feminists, as a matter of legal theory, must take both the BWS and cultural defenses seriously, these defenses need further elaboration. Section I details what these defenses are, how they developed, and how they work in the justice system. Section II enlarges the picture by revealing the similarities between the two defenses which share not only the same theoretical and practical goals, but also the same criticisms and flaws highlighted by scholars. Finally, Section III asserts that cultural evidence and evidence of battering must be admitted to show the absence of mens rea. However, …


The Silent Victims: Children And Domestic Violence, Nancy Ver Steegh Jan 2000

The Silent Victims: Children And Domestic Violence, Nancy Ver Steegh

Faculty Scholarship

Few of us would fail to intercede if we happened upon a child being physically attacked. Most of us would shield even an unknown child from witnessing a traumatic event. If we knew that a child might come to harm, such as a toddler playing in traffic, most of us would escort that child to safety. On a personal level, we are committed to the well being of our children. As a society, however, we close our ears to the cries of the children growing up in violent homes. It is now time to give them voice. New research reveals …


The Constitutional Court Provides Succour For Victims Of Domestic Violence - S V Baloyi, Penelope Andrews Jan 2000

The Constitutional Court Provides Succour For Victims Of Domestic Violence - S V Baloyi, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

Focus - The Constitutional Court's 1999 Term


Evidence Issues In Domestic Violence Civil Cases, Jane C. Murphy, Jane H. Aiken Jan 2000

Evidence Issues In Domestic Violence Civil Cases, Jane C. Murphy, Jane H. Aiken

All Faculty Scholarship

New laws and policies aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence have been adopted across the country over the last twenty years.The legal approaches taken to protect battered women and control family violence have resulted in significant changes in family law. New laws include statutes permitting civil protection or restraining orders, and laws requiring that domestic violence be considered in custody and/or visitation decisions. Both of these types of statutory reforms can provide protection to adult victims of domestic violence and their children. Evaluating a parent's fitness by considering past acts of violence to other family members results in decisions …


Supreme Court Of Nevada, Administrative Office Of The Courts, Nevada Domestic Violence Resource Manual, Mary E. Berkheiser Jan 2000

Supreme Court Of Nevada, Administrative Office Of The Courts, Nevada Domestic Violence Resource Manual, Mary E. Berkheiser

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.


International Child Abduction And The Escape From Domestic Violence, Merle H. Weiner Jan 2000

International Child Abduction And The Escape From Domestic Violence, Merle H. Weiner

Fordham Law Review

The violence went on for nine months. . . . By the end, the beatings were happening weekly, sometimes three times a week. . . . It always went on in front of the kids. . . . My daughter still asks, 'Why'd papa try to break your arms and legs?'. . . I left France when I realized after nine months that there was nothing I could do there to stop the violence.


Ending Male Privilege: Beyond The Reasonable Woman, Stephanie M. Wildman Jan 2000

Ending Male Privilege: Beyond The Reasonable Woman, Stephanie M. Wildman

Michigan Law Review

A Law of Her Own: The Reasonable Woman as a Measure of Man by Caroline A. Forell and Donna M. Matthews aspires to provide a solution for an enigmatic jurisprudential problem - the systemic failure of the legal order to recognize and to redress the injuries that women experience. Feminist scholars have agreed that, for women, the legal separation of public and private spheres often insulates from legal review behavior that harms women. But even in the so-called public sphere, women suffer harms that remain invisible and unnamed. The authors identify four legal arenas in which the "spectrum of violence …


Shifting Power For Battered Women: Law, Material Resources, And Poor Women Of Color, Donna Coker Jan 2000

Shifting Power For Battered Women: Law, Material Resources, And Poor Women Of Color, Donna Coker

Articles

No abstract provided.


Domestic Violence As A Factor In Custody Determinations In New York State, Hon. Judith J. Gische Jan 2000

Domestic Violence As A Factor In Custody Determinations In New York State, Hon. Judith J. Gische

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In 1996, the New York State Legislature mandated that rial courts consider the effect of domestic violence in child custody and visitation disputes. In 1998, the legislature amended the law to provide that, under most circumstances, a person convicted of murdering a child's parent shall be denied custody and visitation. The amendment was in response to a growing national trend to give greater attention to the serious effect domestic violence has on children. While the law now conveys the seriousness with which the legislature view domestic violence, many problems inherent in resolving custody and visitation disputes involving domestic violence still …


Understanding The Victim: A Guide To Aid In The Prosecution Of Domestic Violence, Jennice Vilhauer Jan 2000

Understanding The Victim: A Guide To Aid In The Prosecution Of Domestic Violence, Jennice Vilhauer

Fordham Urban Law Journal

As one of the most prevalent crimes in the country, domestic violence is one of the most frequently handled cases for prosecutors across the nation. Despite their commonality, however, domestic violence cases can raise the anxiety level of even the most experience prosecutors. There are several causes of such anxiety. First, domestic violence cases are often plagued by evidentiary problems that occur when a victim does not desire prosecution. Second, even in states where mandatory prosecution laws have been enacted, it can still be difficult to successfully prosecute a case when a victim is hostile, uncooperative and acting in direct …


The Role Of The Law Guardian In A Custody Case Involving Domestic Violence, Nancy S. Erickson Jan 2000

The Role Of The Law Guardian In A Custody Case Involving Domestic Violence, Nancy S. Erickson

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A law guardian for a child has an extremely difficult job, one that arguably requires a higher degree of diligence than that of an attorney representing a competent adult. Yet, under New York law, the role of the law guardian for a child involved in a custody is not clearly defined. When domestic violence is involved, the law guardian's role becomes crucial. The role of the law guardian for a child in a custody case involving domestic violence has been expanded as a result of the enactment of chapter 85 of the 1996 Laws of New York. This article outlines …


Women, Children And Domestic Violence: Current Tensions And Emerging Issues Jan 2000

Women, Children And Domestic Violence: Current Tensions And Emerging Issues

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A symposium in which the conference speakers give a clear and disturbing picture of how we ascribe a kind of omnipotence to mothers vis-a-vis their children. If children are hurt, it is assumed that those at fault must be the mothers, and they are likely to be blamed even when it is the father who strikes the blows, lands the punchers or terrifies the child. Somehow, we imagine they should have been able to snatch the children out of harms way. The answer to this problem ultimately lies in making sure the ways victims of domestic violence think about their …


Charging Battered Mothers With "Failure To Protect": Still Blaming The Victim Jan 2000

Charging Battered Mothers With "Failure To Protect": Still Blaming The Victim

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Domestic violence harms children and families. In the past several years, efforts to recognize this harm have led to the passage of new state laws that allow for concurrent criminal and family court jurisdiction in domestic violence cases, mandate arrest in domestic violence situations and require courts to consider domestic violence as a factor in custody decisions. Unfortunately, the heightened awareness of the harm domestic violence causes children has also resulted in a punitive policy towards battered women in the child welfare system. Increasingly in New York City, abuse and neglect proceedings are brought against battered mothers. Their children are …


Weighing The Domestic Violence Factor In Custody Cases: Tipping The Scales In Favor Of Protecting Victims And Their Children, Kim Susser Jan 2000

Weighing The Domestic Violence Factor In Custody Cases: Tipping The Scales In Favor Of Protecting Victims And Their Children, Kim Susser

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Many new laws and policies are emerging in the area of domestic violence. In 1994, the Legislature passed the Family Protection and Domestic Violence Intervention Act- a complete overhaul of laws dealing with domestic violence in both the civil and criminal arean. The Legislature declared that domestic violence is now a crime. It is unfortunate that batterers are not always consider criminals when they seek custody of their children. If convicted of a stranger crime, courts are known to accord weight to the batterer's criminal history. When the victim is the child's mother, it seems to be another story. All …


Stopping New Yorkers' Stalkers: An Anti-Stalking Law For The Millennium, Demetra M. Pappas Jan 2000

Stopping New Yorkers' Stalkers: An Anti-Stalking Law For The Millennium, Demetra M. Pappas

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This essay concerns itself with some of the legislative responses to stalking in New York and examines some of the specific anti-stalking provisions of the Clinic Access and Anti-Stalking Act of 1999, recently signed by New York Governor George Pataki. The author interviews Senator Michael A.L. Balboni, Assemblyman Scott Stringer, and the Assemblyman's former Legislative Director Rob Hack, who were all heavily involved in getting the legislation passed, offering a unique perspective.


Gender Difference In Perceiving Violence And Its Implication For The Vawa's Civil Rights Remedy, Renee L. Jarusinsky Jan 2000

Gender Difference In Perceiving Violence And Its Implication For The Vawa's Civil Rights Remedy, Renee L. Jarusinsky

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The enactment of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 was viewed as "a potential vehicle of empowerment" for women, and was a long-awaited morve toward gender equality in the United States. By enacting the VAWA, Congress emphatically expressed a strong commitment to curb and attack the pervasiveness of sex-based violence. In practice, however, the civil rights remdy has fallen short. In the few VAWA cases brought under the civil rights remedy, the "crime of violence" requirement has been interpreted in such a narrow way that it strips the remedy of any effect. While there is confusion as to …


Civil Rights Law In Transition: The Forty-Fifth Anniversary Of The New York City Commission On Human Rights Jan 2000

Civil Rights Law In Transition: The Forty-Fifth Anniversary Of The New York City Commission On Human Rights

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Symposium co-sponsored by the New York City Commission on Human Rights and the Fordham Urban Law Journal includes transcripts of panel discussions on topics at the intersection of law and policy. These topics include mediation, domestic violence, disability law, hate crimes legislation, sexual harassment, and sexual orientation law.


Protection Of Domestic Violence Victims Under The New York City Human Rights Law's Provisions Prohibiting Discrimination On The Basis Of Disability, Marta B. Varela Jan 2000

Protection Of Domestic Violence Victims Under The New York City Human Rights Law's Provisions Prohibiting Discrimination On The Basis Of Disability, Marta B. Varela

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article analyzes the need to create a new protected class of domestic violence victims to shield them from discrimination in employment. The Article examines arguments for and against proposed legislation to revise the human rights law governing disability, section 8-107 of the New York City Administration Code. The Article concludes that this legislation is unnecessary because the law already provides sufficient protection to domestic violence victims without requiring that victims disclose their domestic violence status to their employers.


Baltimore City’S Child-Focused Court, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran Jan 2000

Baltimore City’S Child-Focused Court, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The "Normal" Successes And Failures Of Feminism And The Criminal Law, Victoria Nourse Jan 2000

The "Normal" Successes And Failures Of Feminism And The Criminal Law, Victoria Nourse

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To write of feminist reform in the criminal law is to write of simultaneous success and failure. We have seen marked changes in the doctrines and the practice of rape law, domestic violence law, and the law of self-defense. There is not a criminal law casebook in America today, nor a state statute book, that does not tell this story. Yet for all of this success, we also live in a world in which reform seems to suffer routine failures. Many believe, for example, that feminist reforms have rid rape law of the resistance requirement; however, recent scholarship makes it …