Family Attorney
Domestic Violence Is Target Of Bill
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For nearly a half million women, the holiday season is a time not of joy but of violence and tragedy, says Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has proposed the first Federal legislation dealing with domestic violence. “During this holiday season, in the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, about 450,000 women will be violently abused in their homes,” said Mr. Biden, a Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And most tragically, every week between now and Christmas, about 30 women will be killed by their spouses.” Almost all legislation dealing with violence between intimate adult partners remains at the state and local level. The Violence Against Women Act, which Mr. Biden proposes to reintroduce in the next Congress, would subject abusers to stringent penalties and would triple Federal financing for battered women’s shelters. It would also create Federal penalties for abusers who cross state lines in search of a fleeing partner and would offer incentives to states that arrest spouse abusers. “In considering domestic violence in the United States, it must be recognized that this is not a ’special interest’ topic but a national problem of serious proportions,” Dr. Angela Browne, a professor of law and psychiatry at the Universtity of Massachusetts, testified at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Memories of Pain More : query.nytimes.com |
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