Domestic Violence Law Reform Campaign in the US

Thank you for taking two minutes to complete this important survey. Victims voices are at the centre of this domestic violence law reform campaign and we want to make sure that your voice is heard.  All responses will be anonymous. 

The most dangerous cases happen when domestic violence, stalking and coercive control co-occur. This is where women and children are more likely to be murdered and early identification and intervention is vital to saving lives.

Currently, the laws used to prosecute domestic abuse – including breach of a restraining order, damaging property, assault, burglary, rape, kidnapping and murder – do not describe its essence. It misses the fact that domestic abuse is about fear and a pattern of continuing acts. However,  lawyers only prosecute for a single event and tends to focus on the injury level. As a direct result, the seriousness of the pattern of abuse is not identified or understood, victims become entrapped, abuse and rape become normalised and no-one goes to prison without injuries being present. Put simply, the criminal law does not conceive many women in abusive relationships as victims of ongoing abuse.

Unacceptable controlling, domineering and demeaning behaviours currently fall outside the law and cumulative harms are ignored when each abusive incident is treated as an isolated offence. Victims often report that “the violence isn’t the worst part” of being abused and that the non-violent forms of abuse can be more devastating than physical or sexual violence. However, current law also leads to minimisation of abuse by police and courts. We want to change this and need your help.