Domestic Violence Law

This Hornbook is a comprehensive, well-researched overview of all aspects of state and federal law on domestic violence, including the pending VAWA Reauthorization bill before Congress. Hallmark features of the book include in-depth exploration of the following topics: the nature and extent of domestic violence; the role of influential factors (age, sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, social class); special contexts (military, police, professional athletics); the full range of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse (strangulation, stalking, sexual assault, separation abuse, teen dating violence, elder abuse, financial abuse, pet abuse, murder suicide, reproductive control, domestic violence by proxy, instrumental use of children; litigation abuse); cutting-edge laws on revenge porn and coercive control; law enforcement response (mandatory arrest, dual arrest, primary aggressor laws, no drop policies); Violence Against Women Act and its previous reauthorizations; criminal law defenses (self-defense, duress, cultural defense, provocation); evidentiary issues (Battered Woman Syndrome, marital rape, prior act testimony, out-of-court statements, exceptions to the hearsay rule, forfeiture by wrongdoing, batterers' profile evidence, spousal testimonial privilege, victim recantation); orders of protection both civil and criminal; tort remedies; firearm regulations; tribal law issues; family law issues (role of domestic violence in divorce, property division, spousal support, parenting, and child abduction); child welfare overlap with domestic violence; immigration law issues; discrimination against victims in housing and employment; and international laws (international human rights, asylum, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction, fiance visas, U-visas, and the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act). Up-to-date issues cover the pending Violence Against Women bill before Congress, the recent U.S. Attorney General's decision reversing longstanding asylum protection for survivors, and the recent guideline of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommending that all health care clinicians screen for domestic violence.