Domestic Violence

INTRODUCTION

What is domestic violence?   There is no question that domestic violence directed against women is a serious problem.   Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop has called it women's number-one health problem.   The statistics reported in the popular press are staggering: Nearly one third of women in hospital emergency departments are there due to domestic violence, three out of four female homicide victims are killed by their husbands or lovers, and 6 million women are victims of abuse by people they know each year (Journal of the American Medical Association June, 1992).  


Let us begin by first defining what abuse is:   abuse is the use or threat to use physical, sexual, or verbal behavior to coerce the partner to do something one wants; to degrade or humiliate; to gain or maintain a sense of power or control; to act out ones anger inappropriately.   Abusive behaviors may include subtle or covert harm as well as life threatening acts of violence.   Yet, it seems to be that violence against an intimate partner does not seem to be as serious as other crimes.   We know this, because less than half of our states view marital rape as a crime (History of Governor' Commission on Domestic Violence, 2001).   The Governor's Commission on Domestic Violence was established by the Weld/Cellucci administration in April 1992, shortly after domestic violence was declared a public health emergency in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.   The Governor's Commission on Domestic Violence leads the nation in its comprehensive and innovative approach to addressing the crime of domestic violence.   Some of its many accomplishments include:
· State funding for domestic violence prevention and intervention initiatives including: resources for district attorney's offices, battered women's programs and emergency shelters, legal services, school based teen dating violence programs, certified batters intervention programs, and judicial training.   For FY01, state funding... [continues]

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