Family Attorney

Domestic Violence Charges were dropped Thursday against Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, who was arrested in early March, after his meeting girlfriend.

Allegheny County prosecutors announced the decision of a judge was to open in the preparation of a first hearing Harrison, at the expense of simple injuries and the criminal stupidity.

“He has advice to domestic abuse. The victim does not have more back and that the victims do not want to adopt, at the prosecution, “said Mike gap, a spokesman for the public prosecutor.

Harrison, and the police said he was Beth, 8 March Tibbott compete, and then he broke the door of their bedroom, she hit in the face and schnappte their mobile phones in half. The Steelers have said, the couple was the war the question of whether to baptize the son Harrison.

Harrison’s lawyer, Robert DelGreco Jr., said Harrison-management problems and psychological counselling, which would probably be necessary was the case in court went.

It was only a number of issues, but it may have saved lives Donna.
During the year 2005, they have finally decided to reject the appeal against the abuse man who struck for four years, she threw things that drove him, and he in the bottom.

She said she realized the gravity of their situation was the response to a series of seemingly simple questions that État’s Attorney’s Office. This week, the Annapolis Police Department, there was an increase in the number of agencies in the country to ask a number of questions like, she hopes that saving the lives of victims of domestic violence.

It’s called a “lethality assessment,” a number of questions to determine whether a victim of domestic violence is in grave danger.

Donna, who lives in fear of her ex-husband, called with a false name for this story. She said it was not until he was asked questions which realizes she had a problem.

“I was absolutely scared finally in front of him. This told me that my relationship was fatally …", she says. “It was a big eyes open. That’s what I needed to stay away, stay safe".

You on this subject, which would be good, as “extreme risk” for the evaluation.

Donna was predictable, given the issues in which it participated and the Tribunal. But now, police in the streets of Annapolis are involved, and give the correct assessment, in the victim’s apartment.

Stacey Bolin, victims of the opening of workers Annapolis Police Department, under the direction of the formation of the Division.

“This is a great tool for officers, for a little more information about what’s happening,” she said.

Some of the questions posed, it seems to be clear: If the person never used a gun or under threat? If the individual has already tried to kill you, or is it threatened? Are there any weapons in the house?

Officers may also make a judgement based on “intuition".

Once the officer, the victim asks the question, he said that a high risk, the victim is a person, if in answer “yes” to all three questions severe, the person is put up for sale on a Counselor.

The leader hires a coach and hands through the phone to the victim. If the victim does not want to talk with the coach, the officer still call and talk to advise him on the situation and what they are supposed to do, the next step.

In all cases, victims are urged to help.

These questions will help determine how to help the officers, and the victim may feel good and learn more about their situation.

Certainly, it was the training of officers and supervisors for evaluation, Ms. Bolin it reveals that the victims of domestic violence, and tried to understand what a victim goes through.

Domestic violence, “a quantity of change in you,” she said, and it took some time - perhaps too long, she admits - to the realization, it took its fate.

“I thought it was the rule,” she said.

Your experience will also help its relationship with the victims.

“I do not want you to go through what I went,” she says to them.

If scores save a life, even in Annapolis, it is worth, “said Bolin.

The evaluation was conducted in 2003 by the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence.

“I think this is really an innovative approach while trying to prevent the fact that domestic violence murders,” said Cohen, director of the network.

The evaluation is not, in all cases of domestic violence, which the officer believed to be fatal for the victims, said Ms. Cohen.

While most programs are reactive, this program has allowed the intervention, before someone is killed. And research shows that if victims of domestic violence with a program, it diminishes his chances, is killed or abused, Ms. Cohen said.

More than 60 organizations in Maryland, including Anne Arundel County, have already begun consideration.

Between July 2006 and June 2007, 52 people were killed in Maryland, and incidents of domestic violence, which varies according to the network. According to the Uniform Crime Report, 1188, there were reports on incidents of domestic violence during the year 2006.

Sometimes, a victim did not recognize, as the situation is serious, or afraid, to get help to make. The lethality assessment of the victim said, in any case, the uncertainties that man lives in the same situation were killed.

So far, the police reaction has been positive, “says Ms. Cohen.

“A lot of officers feel very well, because they feel like they can do something … You get very frustrated when they (an incident of domestic violence) and feel like they can not do , “she said.

The evaluation of the programme has its limits, however. The assessment will only those who call for the police, traditionally, and several people were abused at times climbing before calling, “says Ms. Cohen.

A long-term goal is to train people in the industry to health care and faith groups, so that they can help victims of domestic violence, using the lethal opinion.

Often, people think domestic violence is an isolated problem, “she said, but research shows it is not. One in four women in a state of any form of abuse during their lives, “said Ms. Cohen.

During the year 2007, 44 executive authorities and domestic violence programs in 11 reports, there were 3304 lethality opinion. The figure is probably for the year 2008 to increase because there are more than 60 agencies to provide assessments.

Sapna Rana - in the first year student, who is not a professional artist, but it uses the theatre, the elimination of social plague, with a number of college friends. Together, they have an obligation to correct the problems regarding domestic violence in which women in Jammu.

This is not a scene to act just for the fun! For Sapna College and their friends in the streets of Jammu is a platform for important areas, but neglected social issues. Instead of simply complains about very little for women against domestic violence, and their college mates Sapana decided to do something to do and so little time after school, girls go from the street to street , from village to village, women in the press Combating outstanding and mistreated.

Sapna, said: “I have a lot of women, even after years of sacrifice hood. So, by such acts, we want to say, women are not sitting in a corner and someone else can be expected that their lives and comfortable His life change. ”

Sapna and Co. have little accessories, but not complaining. According to them, the streets and assistance to connect to your message is good enough! Anything that women should be bold and exited because of the obstacles and make life enjoyable.

If you think you have a “Bewirker everything", write to us and tell us your story in the world.

Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and Columbia Law School Human Rights entered a clinic soon to match Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) this week in the case of a logo for survivors domestic violence. The case Jessica Lenahan (ex-Gonzales), whose three girls were abducted and murdered by their husbands alienated by the local police refused to impose a moderating against him, and for the first time, the Tribunal recalled that in American countries, including the United States, perhaps responsible for the protection of victims of violence deprived part of the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, of the doctrine of Rights human adopted in the year 1948.

Lenahan’s $ 30 million action against the police division in the Castle Rock Colorado was amended by the Supreme Court in the year 2005. The court decided that Lenahan had no constitutional right to the provisional application of the police in their order, after the ACLU. The IACHR decided to hear the case in October 2007.

“Jessica Lenahan was forced to conduct themselves on an international organization in the United States because the legal system did give him a lot of nudes of justice,” said Araceli Martinez-Olguin, a lawyer for the ACLU Women’s Rights Project , after the Denver Post. “We hope that this measure will ensure that survivors of domestic violence in the country, and to which the Americans have every legal recourse is excluded when human rights are violated by their governments.”

STERLING - Sterling Police Depart-ment, more drug trafficking and gang crime in the context of arrests during 2007, compared to 2006, and administrators believe they have contributed to the alleviation of the fall and domestic violence stopped.

With the help of Rock Falls Police Department, Whiteside County Sheriff’s Department and the rest of the Black Hawk Area Task Force, Sterling’s Police Department has launched a “zero tolerance” attack “on drugs and gangs in 2007.

Adult arrests 6 percent and increased juvenile delinquency increased by 3 percent arrests. It was also an increase of 20 percent of arrests in connection with controlled substances, and 40% an increase in arrests related to marijuana.

According to the division 2007 annual report, published recently, the police has been a decline of 34 per cent of residential burglaries, a decline of 33 percent in construction and automobile burglaries decreased 56 percent Burglaries in business.

“Gangbanger arrest, drugs, and he is the man broke into the homes,” Police Chief pot Hoff, said Ron. “We grew and easier from other arrests.”

Sgt Troy knife was presentations to groups to increase awareness of the links.

“It seems to work well,” said Hoff pot. “People are starting to call us, and then we know where to focus our activities.”

Pot Hoff also credits DARE efforts such as basic education in schools and training courses for Education and resistance in the middle of the school, the Police Department Explorer programme and the jury peer, aid increases in arrests.

Although the number of road accidents has been owns 12 percent, the number of traffic accidents tickets issued has increased by 9 percent and arrests were DUI to 2 percent. Pot Hoff credits trafficking efforts for the implementation of the decrease of road accidents for the third year of law.

After 2007 Sterling Fire Department statistics, calls for fire has been relatively stable over 119 in 2006 to 123 in 2007. Only 52 of them were fires in the structure, the remainder was brush fire or vehicles.

“Overall, it’s a year, but it is also, like hills and valleys. It depends only on the population Ñ if it behave at that time, “Fire Chief Arlyn Oetting said.” There is no particular reason, it is only the general situation of the river, it is for this reason which it upwards and downwards. ”

The number of tenders possible hazardous conditions increased by 51 calls. These calls are still one of the carbon monoxide detectors emits a warning for potential danger.

Starting from January 1, 2007, the mission of the State, that all apartments have a carbon monoxide detector. “We are increasingly at their request, because they have more people,” said Oetting.

The number of false alarms has increased as well. Most false alarms, security systems, which is obscured.

“They call right away instead of trying to control himself, but it’s adequate training, and you do not know,” said Oetting. “All the time, everywhere, it’s the real deal . It is the best, err on the caution. ”

The figures

405 emergency medical calls and

254 false alarms

131 calls for hazardous conditions, but did not fire (oil spills of gasoline, natural gas leaks or carbon monoxide alarm)

128 service calls (investigations into suspicious odors or to help people who need assistance in their country of origin)

Considering pare-123

98 Good intentions calls (calls for help, Rock Falls, it was abandoned on the road)

Although alcohol is not directly lead to that the family is often domestic violence as a cause. Authors, victims and the viewer becomes dire. In many cases, alcohol is used as an excuse for violence and attracted a large number of women under the assumption that it was “responsible for alcohol.”

In a 1988 study, Mr. McGregor estimated that 80 percent of all Australians feel alcohol as a major cause of domestic violence and the family of this belief has not changed in recent years. It is also known that the victims of domestic violence as a family, you can turn to alcohol as a way to find to escape and the release of abuse. This makes them more vulnerable to violence.

The use of alcohol in this way, victims of physical, mental and emotional to leave the abusive situation.

What is the role of alcohol? Alcohol consumption exerts its inhibitions and unleashed deep cultural attitudes. Combine them with on-going problems of relationship, and you have a recipe for violence.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the general public, on the relationship between alcohol and crime in the first place, personal injury, criminal law, domestic violence in the family, in order and public summary of the crime.

In a survey by the Department of Corrective Services in 1996-7 examination of the relationship between alcohol and violence in NSW model prisoners aggression, 72% of men related to the sample had been drinking heavily at the time of the offence. The victim, in 38% of cases, the wife or partner.

Many in the town to believe that people under the influence of alcohol reduces the liability, since the revision of legislation in the year 1995, an offender can no longer escape criminal liability on fundamental principles of intoxication.

Statistically, the family saw 50% of domestic violence incidents are related to alcohol component, which is higher in rural areas as Yass, and should be regarded as an important factor.

There is also the problem of non-violent offences, which could be described as disturbances of public order - Noise complaints, language and offensive behaviour of the man, who had consumed alcohol. A survey found 60% of the Liquor, the crime occurred in the environment or in bars and pubs. The recent establishment of the Liquor, areas in many cities has shown that such reduction in the incidence.

There is also another aspect of the problem of violence and alcohol, which has not yet been so much publicity - that the Liquor Control straw to drink. Was it voluntary or drink consumed?

The victim may not become aware of drinking was the perpetrator has doubled or tripled command to drunk to their own ends. It can draw attention away from the seriousness of sexual harassment if legally by the police or the courts. Sexual Assault Services Providers reported in the Bedfordshire and Morton’s 2002-2003 study, an increase (21.4 percent), in the crisis of reference, where the victim was revealed before the start of the drug. This was an increase of 17 percent over the previous year. Offenders not see themselves as “Drink spikers” cultural diversity because of the sanction of the use of alcohol to reduce inhibitions. Most of the media have highlighted the attention of straw to drink “date rape” drug “, rather than spiking extra alcohol with alcohol. Immobilization of a person may not be life-threatening drinking, are members of the Community, for which the slightest amount of alcohol can cause severe allergic reactions and even death.

The Embassy and the house is not to deal with alcohol without problems, when they drink, and only with friends, buy drinks, they asked to do so, failing which, serious offence. For more information, please CDAT Yass 0429 076736, ACT Alcohol and Drug Services NSW 6207 9977 or Alcohol and Drug Information 422599e-Line 1800

Attorney Don McConnell, the police reportedly said discretion and not stop Barbara Hughes Sunday after a fight on foods.

Hughes told the police that she spoke of 35 years to stay in his refrigerator, and if it fails to comply with the glue, leaving a red mark.

Hughes is sharing his country with his wife and children.

McConnell, M. Hughes is a former nurse and promotion on the part of parents, one is ordained Minister, prisoners in the prison Lewis County Jail and governance in Shelton.

Domestic violence is a problem in the community, and it is not deleted.

If you do not believe that the victims, said lawyer Milton Costin, “Just Stop 6 from the courtroom every Monday.”

Costin, director of Wayne Uplift programme of domestic violence, said the Court of the hall is devoted to cases of domestic violence every Monday from 9 am

“It is filled from front to rear,” he said. “There are people in the corridor of the court of domestic violence. To hear some of these stories, there would be no doubt that someone on these matters are not far away.

The harsh reality, but Costin said, is that for every person represented in the courtroom of such procedures, there are six people who have no files or fees.

The problem of race, sex and socio-economic lines, he explained. More importantly, its impact much more than a simple system of a victim and the aggressor.

“It is forbidden for children,” he said, shaking his head. “The problem has an impact of foreign exchange generation.”

Costin is far too familiar with the epidemic of its day in criminal prosecution authorities, in Washington DC on cooperation with the lighthouse and now Wayne Uplift in Goldsboro. The needs of these victims ranged counselling and shelter.

His office often sees cases of women in difficult situations.

“We receive calls from the whole of this period, late at night, the ER and they were still in the parking lot of Wal-Mart or in the police,” he explained.

The challenge is to remove entirely. More often Costin said, the problem is cyclical.

Citing national statistics, he said, “The women leave seven times before the last time.”

It is especially for non-whites. With a minority health disparities and a national State, efforts are being made to zero concern in the area of domestic violence.

Wayne Uplift and Wayne County Health Department have worked to educate the public sponsorship and public relations in this campaign.

This initiative is supported by the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities and the NC Department of Health and Human Services. The General Assembly recently approved $ 500000 in honor of six members who died recently: Bernard Allen, John Hall, Robert Holl Oman, Howard Hunter, William Lucas and Jeanne Martin.

Rovonda Freeman, health minority coordinator of the Health Division, said that funding for health services has been established in the state, with $ 6000 Wayne County.

The money, she says, is “just another arm to extend what we can do for people in the county of Wayne.”

One of the first steps is public awareness. His office is in the process of preparing information packets are sent to churches and civic organizations. The packages contain information on the consequences of domestic violence and with the resources available to help.

First, the phone number of the victim - 736-1313. Printed on a key own label, Costin said he hoped that the number “until the whole city” salutary sites.

“So the women who are in this situation, or knows someone in this situation, if it sees (the number), often enough, if it is ready to move or to act, namely name,” he said.

The other aspect of the therapy is subsidies, “said Costin. The prevention or mitigation of domestic violence cases is important, he said.

“There are many times in which men, men who are responsible for an improvement in their situation, or has been, by the social services, helping,” he said. “We Certainly, the Agency and Health are very concerned about the integrity of the family and all that we can do all of the family. ”

Without trying to blame everything on men, Costin said, it is rather an event for proactive and preventative. Services are traditionally focused on the care of victims. Well, “he says, it’s time to target assistance for men.

“This is a situation that we are not the responsibility of one sex or the other,” he said. “For one side of the problem, as shortchanging yourself.

“It is better, work for both parties, which modifies the behavior of men, stop the violence.”

Whatever the cause, Costin said he hopes that at least a dent in the problem. Currently, agencies such as child protection and social services have been active in the references next to the court and criminal justice.

Therapy, both individual and group teaching, offers immediate access to medical care, he said.

“It is one of the great benefits of this grant is able to do so,” he said. “We have support groups for women, but also for the treatment of men, there is a group that is meets once a week. ”

These options are not only the mission to be there, Costin noted.

“Of course, if a man or a young man wants to help certain that there is also,” he said.

For more information or to groups and individuals interested in obtaining information or parcels to distribute assistance, ask Wayne Uplift at 736-1313.

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) - One woman died allegedly in the hands of her husband, neighbors say frequently, the purpose of their abuse.

The wife of 50 years, has been stifled in his apartment shortly before 10 pm on Saturday in Red Hook 151 houses on Richard Street.

Your 58 years, the man is in critical condition with deadlines wounds to the chest and arms, perhaps themselves.

AUDIO 1010 wins: Terry Sheridan reports

Neighbours said that the couple with alcohol to combat the problem and the woman was abusing her husband. It is said that he appeared fairly when they return home on Saturday morning and erwürgte it claims to the belt of a bathrobe.

He may have tried to commit suicide.

Police not to comment.

CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY - Kentucky State Police consider an end Saturday evening Taylor County shooting incident in which a suspect in a call for domestic violence was adopted by the local police shot after he refused, according to reports, a pistol and fired at the officers.

The incident occurred at about 11:30 am at 506 Woodlawn Avenue in Campbellsville. A press release of classical swine fever in the Campbellsville Police Department received a 911 call, based on an internal confrontation with weapons.

Police say that if the officials, it came at the age of 22, Adam Powell armed with a pistol in his hand. They say Powell confronted with the pistol officers and officers asked him for the weapon to drop.

According to Powell, while his weapon and fired at the officers. One of the officers to return fire, striking twice Powell. The press release is not identified, the officer, who would have returned the fire. ”

Powell Taylor ambulance to the hospital where he was operated for his injuries. He was later to the University of Louisville Hospital, where he serious, but stable condition early Sunday

The shooting is investigated Detective FOJ Burton Detective Kevin Hunt and the Kentucky State Police.

Some issues often develop tedious exposure. They begin to humans something to eliminate or ignore.

Domestic violence is not part of the issues, and citizens should consider. In a perfect world, they revolted and motivation to help, who are in need.

In recognition of National Women’s History Month, Shippensburg University done their part to draw attention to domestic violence. To protect their credit lines, the school is hosting two exhibits that focus on different types of abuse, such as rape, sexual assault, incest and crimes motivated by hate and crime. Both are available to the public.

Dickinson College’s Clothes Line project is on the screen by 6 Ceddia April at the Union Building’s main hall. The screen is composed of more than 100 T-shirts survivors of violence. Another exhibit will remain in Ezra Lehman-Gedenkbibliothek to Thursday. The Silent Witness Project, YWCA Greater Harrisburg more than 10 years, is a memorial, the memorial of residence for women in the region who were murdered by their partners.

The exhibition has been loaned by the Domestic Violence and Perry counties of Cumberland.

We hope that the public of these major projects and to spend some time on campus to develop a deeper understanding of what took place. Even more, but we hope that visitors to the inspiration, actions.

The sad truth is that domestic abuse is an evil, evil, and all lines

The people of many different levels. Opportunities exist in the fact that most people know at least one victim or an offender in cases of domestic abuse.

We pointed out during the year 2006, that domestic violence a serious problem in Franklin County. This result was confirmed by several experts statistics from Women In Need recent annual report, coupled with the Chamber statistics from Regensburg Police Department.

Lawyers and volunteers WIN served more than 1,500 victims of violence between July 2005 and end in June 2006, after Stacy McCole, organizing coordinator of education. This, compared to nearly 1,300 victims during the same 12-month period, which expires in June 2004.

SU and its organizers should appreciation for the work it is doing to raise awareness on this issue.

We hope that other schools and to acquaint themselves with the projects that assist in the protection of women and children in our society.

Frederick, Md. – A group of experts on the theme “Domestic violence will lead a discussion on the effects of abuse on individuals and the community at 6 pm Thursday, April 3, in the Whitaker Center campus, Hood College, 401 Rosemont Ave.

Speakers are Barbara Martin, CEO of House Inc Cordiale; Teresa Bean, commander of domestic violence to the state of the attorney, Colleen Moore, Program Coordinator for the Family and Violence Response Program Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore , and Rene Renick, Director programmes and measures on the national grid at the end of domestic violence.

The jury is hosted by Nancy Hennessey, director Catherine Filene Shouse Hood’s Career Center and Office in the Service Learning Hood.

The construction of the sole protection of domestic violence in Pickens County is over, and consumer protection through this summer.

“We feel like victims of domestic violence in our subregion have served for many years,” said Ashley Cummings, Director of Mary’s House, the ministry is new pact for your safety.

Mary’s House is an emergency housing for women and their children, ages 16 and younger, and should be open in July, said Cummings.

There is still much to do in the coming months, including the landscape, to put safety outside the home, furniture and decoration.

Rick Clark, chairman of the Board of Directors, said the Assembly will also operational requirements.

“That is all that paper towels to keep the dollar is under way,” he said.

The protection of domestic violence was the year of production, beginning with an outbreak in 2003, for the town and for money.

Since then, members of the community - by companies and individuals, churches and civic organizations - have offered, money, time and effort for the project.

“It is amazing what people have donated,” said Clark. “Anything you might think, for shelter, somebody has occurred in the town and said:” I will help you . “”

It is a continuous effort to ensure the protection of operating system, Clark said, and volunteers and donations are still needed.

Cummings said, it costs about $ 300000 for the construction of the house, where the situation is calm because of security concerns.

Clark said there is not yet a domestic violence shelter in the province of about 10 years.

Without shelter, “of course, the burden of our families who are in need but also to the suppression of local authorities,” he said, describing how the officers must find the protection of victims in the neighbouring country , or maybe circles hotels.

And Clark said Mary’s House is beyond homelessness, women are helping to change the lives of advice and assistance in seeking employment, skills and computer skills.

“I think it will change the lives of homeless,” she said.

DOMESTIC violence in the city of Birmingham, costs of basic services nearly 100 million pounds per year.

This alarming is the result of an analysis of the city of broad surveys domestic abuse, the Council prior to that total next week.

The municipal councils are now worried of a massive campaign in Birmingham, education, human and local communities about the consequences of domestic violence and the services available to manage it.

National, on average, two women per week are dying in the hands of violence in the home environment.

Countries Mark Hill, president of the local services and public safety committee, the holding of the report, said: “Domestic violence is a crime, under-reported.

“The figures show that, on average, each week, two women die as a result, while the impact on communities and the local economy are enormous.

“The costs of Birmingham, for example, is £ 97 million per annum, services, as the local authority housing and social services and costs for the police and the health sector.”

The report is next to a three year course of the strategy, which aims to share a number of partners within the framework of the fight against domestic violence, including government and volunteer organizations, the Police and Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid.

Countries Hill added: “We must clearly demonstrate that the municipal council and the partners are required operating perpetrators accountable and men, women and children throughout the city safer.”

Copies of the report are available from the town on www. Birmingham.gov.uk / control

Domestic violence: the facts

* Women are affected more often than to be a man, wounded by domestic violence.

* Women are more often repeatedly abused - 47 percent of the male population has experienced a single incident, while women have an average of 20 incidents per year of experience.

* Women are rather more fear and the separation of being.

* Women are affected more often are murdered - 42 percent of women who are killed in the hands of a current or former partner, while only seven percent of male murder victims killed by a current or former partner, with a fifth, a same-sex partner.

* Men are less poor by their experience of violence.

A man and a woman, both from Massachusetts, were arrested this morning after expressing offensive Comfort Inn, police said.

Daniel Kalinowski, 24, Worcester, was warned at about 2:15 pm after earnings reports and the woman pulls a knife on her, Waterville, “said the police sergeant. Joseph Shepherd.

It was domestic violence and injuries, with a threat of criminal prosecution dangerous weapon.

The woman, Kelly Tellier, 25, Dracut, Mass., was also arrested. She was in the attack on domestic violence.

“It has saved, he went to prison,” said Shepherd.

Nate Dogg, whose real name is Nathaniel Hale, pleaded guilty on Tuesday and at home to strengthen peace and the failure of the battery from a complaint lodged in Switzerland 2006 his ex-girlfriend.

Nate, a founding member of the rap group 213 with Snoop Dogg and Warren G, has been very successful at working with other artists Hip Hop, and more than 60 discs Chart individual classes and four Grammy nominations.

In 2006, the artist of 38 years, has been strengthened with the house of crime breach of the peace, telephone harassment, battery attack, a witness abratend of crime registrants and injured one moderator, to break d a previous incident of domestic and crack seizure in a house, Newport Beach If his ex-girlfriend, her new friend, the same as the friend of the mother. According to TMZ, Nate’s friend punched in the face and then fled the scene.

During three of the five categories were dropped in court, Nate’s ex and his new friend have both filed provisional measures against the singer.

Advocacy is in Orange County, California court led to the room a slap on the wrist for Nate. The native of Long Beach is a command for a program specifically designed for addressing these issues of domestic violence, three years’ probation, and this year the rights to own a gun for the next 10 years.

Pending Nate is currently recovering from a stroke, he was the victim, in December 2007, which paralyzed the left side of his body. Nate’s important performances in the last over 2005 albums in the Mid-Nite Hour Warren G. It has been over five years since Dogg released a solo album.

The problem of violence against women, some of the greatest challenges in the world, but urged activism against him who has worked as some of the most powerful victory for human rights. It is precisely now, violence against women is universal, and often go unpunished devastating. It exceeds all boundaries, and its enormous human and economic costs has not yet.

The women and girls of all nationalities, cultures, religions and their economic suffering. The World Bank estimates that violence against women is so great that one of the causes of death and disability among working women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of health problems such as accidents of the road and malaria combined (World Development Report 1993). Worldwide, one of the four women were raped or, most often by someone she knows (Coffey, 1998). In some countries, in the evaluation of the abuse of women by their husbands is as high as 75 percent.

But as big as the problem of violence against women looms today, we can recognize the progress that we are making right now. In 1993, the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women was the first international human rights to deal specifically with violence against women. The World Conference on Human Rights reaffirms in the same year as violence against women, against human rights standards. Other global conferences, as a result of the elimination of violence between women and development undoubtedly clear.

Through this process, it is not as clear that the organization or group may be the only end to the violence. The partnership and coordination are essential. In 1998, the Fund for the United Nations Development for Women (UNIFEM) conducted a series of the UN Convention on the Elimination of regional campaigns on violence against women. The first was in Latin America and the Caribbean, UN agencies, national and regional leaders, NGOs, 22 governments and thousands of community groups.

It uses innovative areas of the media and training strategies for governments begin to reverse the parameters of social policy, the promotion of violence against women. He also promoted the revision of discriminatory laws and the adoption of new legislation, as well as strengthening the enforcement. For example, in domestic violence legislation was Grenada, a law against intrafamily violence has been implemented in Bolivia and Brazil, a compact community against domestic violence has been followed by more than 1200 non-governmental organizations and municipal governments. The campaign was such a success that he has repeatedly in Africa and Asia and the Pacific.

The challenge is that our success is to ensure sustainable action. In March 1999, UNIFEM United Nations Inter-sponsored video, “A World Free of Violence Against Women". In this emblem of the event, I proposed five ideas for concrete action on the proposal for setting up networks around the world work at the end of gender-based violence. One was the November 25th International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. In November of last year, governments of the world, the United Nations General Assembly in the resolution establishing the International Day. In doing so they acknowledged the strength of a growth of a global movement, the tragic end of the epidemic devastated, that the lives of women and girls, fractures and municipalities is an obstacle to gender equality and the development of each nation.

With able to do so, I wish to remind that the other four ideas: Let us make sure that every country in the world, domestic violence against the law. Every woman must have the right to protection, in order to combat those who threaten him and his children. Each country should be the document of progress and gaps in the prevention and elimination of violence against women. In aggregate data, research and awareness of our work on the elimination of violence would be mounted on the front.

Violence in the lives of women are not eradicated until all members of society to tolerate refuse. They must make activism men. We need to support the programme in which men, the responsibility for ending the violence, but never at the expense of thousands of services and efforts to protect women’s rights organizations in the past 30 years. Until recently, the only source of help, understanding and solace.

There is an urgent need for more resources to support initiatives against violence and to help them reach more millions of women. UNIFEM’s Trust Fund to support measures to eliminate violence against women is a unique mechanism for the provision of grants for innovative projects throughout the world by the end of violence against women and girls. The Trust Fund and other mechanisms, strategies and programmes aimed at ending violence must be much larger injection of funds to the growing demand from consumers.

The activism to end violence against women is everywhere on the rise, and each small step is for the collective management of power and dynamism of the whole. Together, we are beyond a doubt that the political will, resources and measures aimed at ending violence against women is in sight. That is our dream, and it is on the road to reality.

Smoke Signals “is remarkable for one thing: this is the first night film, best director, and co-produced by Native Americans. Director: Chris Eyre and adapted by screenwriter Sherman Alexie in his book” The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, “the film has a non-stereotypical representation of life on Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, but that’s a story conventionally closed with emotion a young man comes to his father died.

The young man was Joseph Victor, played with intensity brütender Adam Beach. Victor was unpleasant and appears as a child (Cody Lightning), and that his father alcoholic Arnold (Gary Farmer) has expired, and now it is a hook and mürrische 22 years. Today, however, that the atmosphere that characterizes as “stoischen", and recommends that his friend Thomas clumsy builds the Fire (Evan Adams) to be adopted. “Get stoischen, Thomas,” he advises. “You are an Indian.”

The cliché of the aciéreux-eyed man in red is not working for Thomas, though. With his geeky costume, toothy grimacer, protective glasses, braids, and “Frybread Power” T-shirt, he looks like a cross between a computer and Nerd Pippi Longstocking. But if the history of the narrator, born hurts his eyes closed and weaves a story in his “accent” reservation, which, like the sound of aboriginal Emo Phillips, you know, that has its roots in antiquity, planted in ground.

“How is that the oral tradition?” Thomas tears, especially after the invention driven by a thread. When asked the offensive from cultural prejudice, the film managed to avoid the clichés, in recognition. These are occasions where this individual-spöttischem humour. Inside jokes about trade and sarcastic signs such as “you know, like the Indians feel on the signing of paper” in abundance.

When messages come to the reservation Victor’s father died in a trailer park outside of Phoenix, and that someone has done for his ashes, and Victor Thomas on a stretch bus with a glass starts to change and cowardly travel, both physical and spiritual.

By Mark Berman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 1, 2007; VA03

The Arlington County Board has approved a sweeping initiative aimed at curbing domestic violence in the county through a coordinated community response.

Project Peace outlines a plan for implementing an array of preventive, protective and support services for those affected by domestic violence. The campaign also will address concerns that hundreds – perhaps thousands – of cases of abuse and violence go unreported in the county each year. Arlington could have as many as 3,000 victims a year, officials said, based on national statistics that 47 out of every 1,000 women are victims of domestic violence. Last year, Arlington police filed 400 incident reports for domestic violence.

“This is a very serious problem, and it’s much more pervasive than you might think,” said board member Barbara A. Favola, who chaired the roundtable that oversaw the creation of the plan. “If we were going to do this, we wanted to do it right. We wanted to leave no stone unturned.”

A group of citizens spent nearly a year developing the plan, which outlines necessary changes and steps required to implement them. Although services are in place, the plan provides a way for community partners, including government agencies, organizations and individuals, to work together more effectively.

Favola said the group studied domestic violence programs in the region, including Alexandria and Fairfax, and modeled Arlington’s plan after the best practices.

The county has created a coordinator position in the Department of Human Services to manage launching the plan. Valerie C. Cuffee, chief of Child and Family Services, expects to hire someone in the next week.

Cuffee will co-chair an implementation task force of representatives from social service agencies, public schools, law enforcement, the courts and other organization, aimed at ensuring across-the-board collaboration. The plan is to set up infrastructure and then seek grants to hire other staff members.

Favola said the two most positive things to emerge from the project are an increased focus on prevention by starting education programs in the county’s elementary, middle and high schools and ensuring that children in homes where abuse is occurring receive counseling.

“Working with those kids and helping them recover is a big thing on many levels,” Favola said. “Studies show that children who are in homes of domestic violence turn out to be perpetrators. If you really want to break the cycle, you need to get to the kids.”

The plan will help coordinate services “in a much more efficient and high-quality manner,” said Linda Dunphy, executive director of Doorways for Women and Families, a nonprofit agency that offers shelter and services to abused, homeless and at-risk women and families.

In the last three decades, feminism has revolutionized daily life from the legal system and social mores down to the story books children use in kindergarten. Feminist discussion seems to be ‘always’ and ‘everywhere’.

But I believe the contrary is true. Genuine discussion of feminist issues ended in the 1970s when one school came to dominate and moved to silence competing views both within the movement and outside.

Politically correct feminists maintain that women as a class are politically oppressed by men as a class, which means that every woman is oppressed by every man. Class oppression is the ideological lens through which PC feminism views all issues.

Tammy Bruce’s book “The New Thought Police” (2001) received media buzz as a former insider’s expose of how PC feminists smear their intellectual opponents in an attempt to silence and discredit them. For example, Bruce described how PC feminists led a campaign of defamation against the conservative Dr. Laura Schlessinger by misrepresenting her as homophobic.

Joan Garry, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, was quoted as saying, “If she can’t be controlled, she must be stopped.”

More : foxnews.com

“Domestic-Abuse Law: An Accuser’s Painful Choice” (Law page, May 7) points out that only in New York State is the victim in a family violence situation precluded by law from taking civil and criminal legal action simultaneously. By the 1977 “right of election” law, the victim is forced to make a choice between the two within three days, oftentimes while still suffering from the trauma of an attack.

I have introduced legislation in the New York State Senate (S. 3190) to remedy this grievous fault, enabling victims of domestic violence to take both civil and criminal action.

The original intent of the 1977 law was to provide victims with access to the criminal courts, not to force the victim to make a choice. It is crucial that both venues remain open to the victim since Family Court provides social and support services, while the protection achieved through a motion in Criminal Court is essential to the future well-being of the victim.

Victims of other crimes have never been prohibited from seeking civil redress for offenses that are the basis of a criminal prosecution. The same must hold true for victims of domestic violence. ROY M. GOODMAN State Senator, 26th Dist. New York, May 10, 1993

Source : query.nytimes.com

In 1994, soon after Gov. George E. Pataki took office, lawmakers enacted a measure that required police officers to arrest anyone suspected of domestic abuse – regardless of whether their victims wished to press charges. The law is set to expire next month, and efforts to expand its scope and make it permanent have engendered broad unusual agreement among lawmakers from across the political spectrum.

The mandatory-arrest measure, one of many enacted across the country in the 1990’s, represented a rare bipartisan meeting of minds in the state Capitol: Republicans and Democrats alike had much to gain, politically, from a get-tough law on domestic violence.

In the six years since the law has been in effect, domestic violence arrests – mostly of men – have risen steadily, according to data collected by the Pataki administration. At the same time, some advocates for battered women say, growing numbers of the abused, mostly women, have been arrested because their partners made retaliatory charges and the officers were unsure who the primary aggressor was.

More : query.nytimes.com

Domestic violence is so common that doctors should routinely screen their female patients for it, the American Medical Association recommended yesterday.

The A.M.A. released guidelines that suggested screening all women seen in emergency, surgical, primary care, pediatric, prenatal and mental health settings.

“This is for every doctor in this country,” Dr. Robert McAfee, vice chairman of the association, said after a news conference.

Dr. Antonia Novello, the Surgeon General, endorsed the guidelines, saying: “It is a beginning. I still believe we have a long way to go.”

She said doctors must overcome denial and apathy about domestic violence. “I think the time has come to take the issue of domestic violence out of the shadows and out of the closet,” she said.

Dr. Novello also stressed that domestic violence could occur outside marriage, like in dating and in relationships that have ended in divorce or separation.

More : query.nytimes.com

Re your May 31 news article on Bob Dole’s being confronted in Chicago on his view of welfare: It is important for Presidential candidates to talk about the link between domestic violence and women’s poverty. However, the relationship between the two must be better understood. It is not welfare that causes domestic violence but the reverse.

Many women who try to flee abusers often escape with only the clothes on their backs. They have no money, because the abuser controls the finances. The women end up homeless or in a shelter; the welfare system is their only way out of poverty.

Our study on the impact of violence on poverty, which focuses on New York City, shows that many women trying to move out of poverty are stalked, beaten and abused by partners. In addition to physical beatings, the report identifies a range of emotionally abusive and controlling behaviors to which the women being studied were subjected to by their partners, undermining their ability to complete job training or stay in jobs.

This new research is consistent with evidence emerging from around the country. With each new study, the evidence mounts that more than half of women on welfare are current or past victims of domestic violence.

KATHY RODGERS Executive Director, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund New York, May 31, 1996

Source : query.nytimes.com

There have been quite significant developments and improvements this year. Last year, we received Home Office funding of £140,000 for a project to provide community-based advocacy support, including Bengali-speaking advocates, trained to help women deal with the complex issues and bureaucracy involved in escaping from domestic violence. That funding is now being taken over by Tower Hamlets; the fact that it is coming into the mainstream is a real step forward.

We are also training 11 women as trainers to work with GPs, midwives and women’s aid groups on domestic violence issues.

The most heartening thing is that there is an increased awareness of the problem of domestic violence. The government is prepared to talk about the issue and put resources into it. The resources are still limited though: if you break down the £14m they are putting into local crime and disorder partnerships over three years, it comes out at £10,500 a year for us. Compared with the money for fighting drugs, that is minimal, but at least it’s a move in the right direction.

The mayor of London’s strategy, which has set minumum standards for all agencies, is also a very positive development. Locally, we are seeing a really clear and renewed commitment from the police; they are making exactly the right noises.

Mind you, local government is still awash with consultants. It is all very target driven. Most of the targets are quite good, but the pace at which they are expected to be achieved is excessive. The emphasis on positive spin also worries me. It still seems as though the spin and the reality are some way apart.

Morale is very mixed. We had so many people leaving last summer that there were double bookings on leaving parties. In August, even I reached a point where I had had enough. But things have become more positive. In the government’s comprehensive performance assessment, Tower Hamlets came out in the second group, which is “good". A bit of positive validation does no harm at all. Overall, I feel we are beginning to win the arguments and be taken seriously.

More : guardian.co.uk

The government has launched the first nationwide strategy to combat violence against women.

The ‘Living Without Fear’ document, launched by Home Secretary Jack Straw, Minister for Women Margaret Jay and Coronation Street actress Sally Whittaker, will be backed by £6.3m for Victim Suppor and £6m for new projects in England and Wales which reduce domestic violence, rape and sexual assault.

Women’s groups have welcomed the report, but are waiting to see whether more funding will follow later.

The report, which comes after a national consultation exercise, covers a range of violence issues, including rape, domestic abuse, and attacks at work.

More : news.bbc.co.uk

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman is targeting the court system, the workplace and the home with a wide-ranging plan to protect and assist victims of domestic violence.

Accusing President Bush of remaining silent on the issue, the Connecticut senator will unveil a series of proposals Friday based on three goals.

• Strengthening protections for battered women.

• Helping victims lead safe and independent lives.

• Breaking the cycle of violence.

Lieberman says Bush has underfunded the landmark Violence Against Women Act and has missed opportunities to raise awareness about the damage done by batterers to millions of families.

He promises to make the issue a top priority, starting with legal and law enforcement changes and continuing with a pledge to create 300 transitional homes for victims during his first term as president.

According to a summary provided by the campaign, Lieberman will propose cracking down on abusers who violate restraining orders by making such violations a crime. In many states, protective orders are issued by civil courts, not criminal courts, and violating them carries no punishment.

Lieberman would require states to criminalize the violation of civil court orders to qualify for federal violence-prevention funding.

He also would set up 24-hour hot lines so victims can obtain temporary restraining orders at any time and would create a program to help states share information so that restraining orders would be better enforced across state lines.

More : edition.cnn.com

For the first time, a United States city has hired an advocate to help people cope with gay domestic violence.

As part of this effort, San Francisco is launching a public awareness program and is training police how to spot and address gay domestic violence, an area that has never been a traditional law enforcement priority.

“If we are serious about eradicating battering in heterosexual communities, we have to be as serious about eradicating violence in gay communities,” gay activist Crystal Weston said.

Many gays are distrustful of the straight world and believe their culture is widely misunderstood. So they are reluctant to confess to a stranger in the event they are beat up by their gay partners.

“They feel embarrassed and ashamed in airing any more dirty laundry to any enemies that would undermine what we already have,” Weston said.

Gays who go to the police, especially men, sometimes find officers are reluctant to deal with the situation.

For instance, David Carter said police were unresponsive when he told them that he had been stalked and beaten by a former lover.

More : edition.cnn.com

‘’I WENT back to my husband after being away for a week,'’ said a 45-year-old woman with seven children.

‘’I WENT back to my husband after being away for a week,'’ said a 45-year-old woman with seven children.

‘’I thought that, after my absence, perhaps we could make it work and that he would never try and strangle the baby again.'’ A 30-year-old professional woman said: ‘’I see my husband as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I’m sure that the Dr. Jekyll part loves me. But almost without warning, he seems to drop through a trap door and become Mr. Hyde, and the beatings start all over again.'’ A third woman said: ‘’My husband is going to therapy in a batterers’ group. There is a cease-fire after three years of war. Why do I feel so uncomfortable?'’

‘’Maybe,'’ volunteered another woman, ‘’you are just waiting for him to move in for the kill.'’

The women, who insisted on anonymity, were taking part in a weekly support group for abused wives organized by Women Aware. The group, based in New Brunswick, seeks to prevent domestic violence in Middlesex County.

More : query.nytimes.com

THE first combined felony-misdemeanor domestic violence court in the state opened Tuesday here at the Westchester County Courthouse, and officials say there will be enough abuse cases to keep a judge occupied full time.

‘’For far too long, all throughout society, domestic violence was considered just a private matter,'’ said Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye of the State Court of Appeals, at a news conference announcing the official opening of the court. Now, she said, society has realized that ‘’it’s an important public policy issue,'’ which should have specific resources. To help with the continuity of cases, the court will have a single presiding judge, Judge Daniel D. Angiolillo of Westchester County Court. He is a Republican of Harrison. ‘’We see a marked diminution of dismissed cases'’ of domestic violence when one judge handles all cases from arraignment on, Judge Kaye said. To insure monitoring of the cases, an advocate from My Sisters’ Place, a nonprofit agency that provides shelter for battered women and their children, will be part of the court’s staff.

The new court was established by Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman, who said: ‘’The sensitivity and potential volatility of domestic violence necessitates a more focused strategy on the part of the court system in the way these cases are handled. The Westchester Domestic Violence Court will stress victim safety, intensive defendant monitoring, continuity of case handling and improved information sharing between the court systems and law enforcement agencies.'’ He said the domestic violence court would promote ‘’immediate, certain and consistent response'’ to domestic violence crimes, including both punishment and intervention programs.

More : query.nytimes.com

There didn’t seem to be enough words for the patient to tell her story. The sentences tumbled out long and, at times, unintelligible, but with an urgency punctuated by a pounding fist, a shake of the woman’s head and a stream of insults directed at her boyfriend, whose repeated beatings had finally brought her to Harlem

There didn’t seem to be enough words for the patient to tell her story. The sentences tumbled out long and, at times, unintelligible, but with an urgency punctuated by a pounding fist, a shake of the woman’s head and a stream of insults directed at her boyfriend, whose repeated beatings had finally brought her to Harlem Hospital.

‘’He yanked me down to the floor,'’ the 28-year-old woman said. ‘’I screamed, ‘My leg, my leg!’ But he just kept on kicking.'’

As she spoke, she displayed three scars on her right knee, the result of operations to repair torn ligaments and cartilage. ‘’A lot of people are saying it’s my fault,'’ she said.

More : query.nytimes.com

The government has promised “zero tolerance” for men who batter their partners as a report reveals that 30% of cases start when the woman is pregnant.

Health minister Baroness Hayman told a conference organised by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists: “This is a serious issue and I for one intend to demonstrate zero tolerance of violence towards women.”

She was speaking following the publication of the government-commissioned Report of the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths which showed that between 1994 and 1996 six women died just before or after childbirth because of domestic violence.

The government believes the figure may be an underestimate because it is difficult to get accurate figures.

More : news.bbc.co.uk

The results of a recent study on domestic violence in the workplace carry dramatic implications for small-business owners. The University of Arkansas researchers found that individuals who have been abused by intimate partners miss work for health-related reasons and are tardy more often than other employees. It also showed that 20% of threats and 72% of stalking incidents occur at work, potentially putting other employees, and even customers, at risk.

Lead researcher Carol Reeves, associate professor of management at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, spoke recently to Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein about the study and its implications for small business owners. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

How did this survey come about?
I have a personal interest in domestic violence and had done some research on it in the past. I started doing some background work in 2003, and then my colleague, Anne O’Leary-Kelly, chair of the management department, and I received two grants totaling $750,000 from the U.S. Justice Dept. to fund this study.

More : businessweek.com

After all-night debate, delegates from 180 nations at a U.N. conference hammered out a broad plan Saturday that aims to enhance and protect the rights of women worldwide.

Negotiating paragraph by paragraph, participants at the conference in New York agreed on a document that calls for tougher measures to combat domestic violence and trafficking in women.

They also said more must be done to provide affordable health care for women infected by HIV and AIDS, and they urged the creation of programs to educate men and boys on the importance of engaging in safe, responsible sex.

Despite sometimes heated debate, however, delegates could not agree on stronger language on access to abortions, and proposed references to sexual rights and sexual orientation were dropped from the final text.

The agreement was reached about 5 a.m. The U.N. General Assembly was set to formally approve the document at 3 p.m. EDT.

More : edition.cnn.com

Is domestic violence an epidemic in this country? The evidence stares us in the face every day from TV news and the morning paper. The bruised faces. Women shot or maimed or stuffed, lifeless, into the trunk of a car.

In Texas, reports of domestic abuse were up almost 17 percent in the first six months of 1995. Does that jump reflect a spike in violence or just increased reporting? It’s impossible to say. But during that period only spouse abuse and youth crime were up – all other types of violent crime were down

Certainly, discussion of the subject is up.

Talk show hosts dissect it. Movies-of-the-week take it as their theme. Women’s magazines print checklists. Counselors diagram the dynamics of the battering relationship.

More : chron.com

It is necessary to discriminate between the wholesome aversion to an abuse of the military power by the Federal Government and the morbid aversion to its exercise within proper limitations and in exceptional circumstances.

Source : query.nytimes.com

Children who witness domestic violence are doomed to repeat ‘the cycle’ and become either abusers or victims as adults. This alarming claim is one of several underlying assumptions that define how society has approached domestic violence for decades.

Researchers are now questioning and testing these assumptions.

Last month, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine – a national non-profit organization of over 6,000 academic emergency physicians, residents and students – held its annual meeting.

Researchers there reported on the results of testing the ‘inevitable cycle’ hypothesis. Or, rather, they tested a more reasonable and limited version of it; is a child who witnesses domestic violence more likely to be victimized as an adult?

The researchers studied 280 consecutive and, so, random people who sought out emergency care in Albuquerque, N.M. Using a confidential computer screen that minimized interaction with and bias from researchers, each person answered a series of questions that included ones on their childhood history.

More : foxnews.com

The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered all courts in the state to close for one day next month for a seminar on domestic violence, the Los Angeles Times reports. All of the approximately 150 judges in Nevada, from the chief justice to juvenile court referees, will be required to attend the eight-hour session. Nevada is the first state to hold such a mandatory seminar.

Justice Robert E. Rose handed down the order, which will cost $28,000 in judicial salaries and expenses. Judge Rose said some of his colleagues have objected: “They feel it should be voluntary, and that they have an adequate handle on family violence. I have said to them that it’s a major problem in society and the courts, to attend the seminar and keep an open mind.”

The National Clearing House on Domestic Violence says battering is the most frequent cause of injury to women - more than rape, automobile accidents and muggings combined.

Source : iht.com

In the week since a young woman was slain at Columbia University and her boyfriend committed suicide shortly afterward, the university and its students have grappled with an issue of increasing concern on campuses around the country: violent relationships among students.

Virgil Renzulli, a spokesman for Columbia University, said students there had turned to counseling sessions and support groups, and that they were able to receive peer counseling over the telephone. The university has a Rape Crisis/Anti-Violence Support Center, and students can consult a health adviser on the Internet, known as Go Ask Alice (www.goaskalice.columbia.edu), which offers advice on subjects like relationships, emotional health and sexuality.

The murder of the student, Kathleen Roskot, a sophomore, and two other recent attacks at other area campuses have underscored the problem of abusive relationships. The statistics are particularly chilling: one in five college students has reported at least one incident of abuse when dating, from slaps to more serious violence, according to the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, an advocacy group in Bloomington, Ill.

More : query.nytimes.com

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) will expire this September if it is not reauthorized by Congress. Largely viewed as an anti-domestic violence measure, VAWA has become a flashpoint for the men’s rights advocates who see it instead as the living symbol of anti-male bias in law.

Although a significant number of domestic violence victims are male, VAWA defines victims as female. As one result, tax-funded domestic violence shelters and services assist women and routinely turn away men, often including older male children.

Estimates vary on the prevalence of male victims. Professor Martin Fiebert of California State University at Long Beach offers a bibliography that “summarizes 170 scholarly investigations, 134 empirical studies and 36 reviews.”

It indicates that men and women are victimized at much the same rate. A lower-bound figure is provided by a recent DOJ study: Men constituted 27 percent of the victims of family violence between 1998 and 2002.

Accordingly, men’s rights activists not only accuse the VAWA of not merely being unconstitutional for excluding men but also of dismissing the existence of one-quarter to one-half of domestic violence victims.

More : foxnews.com

SHE met him at a health club. People gravitated to him. Maybe it was his muscles, or maybe it was the million-dollar smile. When he asked her for a date, the prospect was intriguing. Who could have known that the man had problems in relationships with women? Who could have guessed it would take nearly a year, the police, the courts, a counselor and an arrest to try to get him out of her life?

It sounded like the elements of a Danielle Steel novel: romance, jealousy, threats, revenge, harassment. But it was real. The victim is a white-collar professional, a 33-year-old woman in Stamford. As far as advocates of the Domestic Violence Services agency in Stamford are concerned, she’s heroic: the rare individual who takes everything the legal system can throw at her and perseveres. Ultimately, her abuser pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and got probation and psychiatric evaluation.

Two years after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman brought the issue of domestic violence into public discussion, experts are still debating its impact.

At first, there were more calls for help and advice to many of the state’s 18 Domestic Violence Services agencies, and the General Assembly passed a more comprehensive stalking law. Then the acquittal of O. J. Simpson last fall brought a drop in calls. Now, numbers are back to what might be considered a normal level, despite the commonly accepted idea that most abuse goes unreported.

More : query.nytimes.com

Although I might agree with much of what Lorraine Dusky has written in her recent book ‘’StiIl Unequal: The Shameful Truth About Women and Justice in America'’ as explored in the article on Feb. 16 $('’An Attack on Sexism in the Judicial System'’$), I disagree with your decision to devote space on the important issue of domestic violence to a non-expert. Although she is not a lawyer or victim’s advocate and has never been dispatched to a violent domestic incident call, Ms. Dusky claims an expertise in these legally complex, demanding and often murky cases which she does not appear to possess.

Suffolk County has had a mandatory arrest policy in domestic violence incidents since January 1988, years before the current New York State mandate. Victims’ advocates have been assigned in every police district precinct for almost as long. Many of the Island’s police departments have created domestic violence units to distribute panic alarms, cellular phones and to assist victims in other forms of safety planning. The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office also has dedicated bureaus to handle both misdemeanor and felony domestic violence cases. In conjunction with a strong advocacy network and support from a committed District Attorney, Police Commissioner and County Executive, police officers in Suffolk County, our front line of defense in the war against domestic violence, are routinely responding to calls in a professional, sensitive manner.

Source : query.nytimes.com

You begin, “What happened to Mrs. Bobbitt happens, in varying degrees, to more than a million American women every year.” You then state that, according to a 1992 Senate Judiciary Committee staff report on violence against women, “The victims are women; the perpetrators are, for the most part, their husbands and lovers.” You also state that Mrs. Bobbitt “is, quite simply, one of a crowd.”

Let me add some facts you omitted. Suzanne K. Steinmetz found in “The Cycle of Violence,” a 1977 study of 57 families from a wide range of socioeconomic status categories and age groups that “60 percent had used physical aggression . . . to resolve marital conflicts. Thirty-nine percent of husbands and 37 percent of wives had thrown things, 20 percent of both husbands and wives had struck their spouses with their hands, and 10 percent of both husbands and wives had hit their spouses with a hard object.”

Dr. Steinmetz observed that there were few differences between husbands and wives in the type and frequency of physical aggression. Women, she noted, were “as likely” as men “to select and initiate physical violence” to resolve marital conflicts.

More : query.nytimes.com

When Kansas City Chiefs offensive guard Will Shields is on the field, defensive linemen pay the price. But you might be surprised to learn that in the off-season, Shields is still concentrating on hitting — off the field.

In order to cut down a growing but often hidden problem, Shields devotes a large part of his charitable efforts to defeating domestic abuse.

“We know there’s a huge problem out there when it comes to domestic abuse,” says Shields. “But even just talking about it is a big step in bringing about the beginnings of healing.”

To help people get back in the game, Shields’ Will To Succeed foundation funds eight different shelters for battered and abused women and children. His wife Senia personally assists at the Marrillac Center, one of the Foundation’s shelters in Kansas City housing abused and neglected children.

“We became involved for many reasons,” notes Shields, “but certainly in part because my wife and I both have friends who have been involved in extremely abusive relationships.”

More : usatoday.com

Women, children, the elderly and other victims of domestic violence are getting fast protection by going to a new municipal courtroom that is open after normal business hours just for them.

The courtroom in City Hall opened this month, dedicated to serving the approximately 5,000 people a year who seek emergency orders after normal business hours. The opening, officials say, came just in time to handle the normal holiday increase in such incidents, an increase that they said could be made worse this year by the recession.

Victims used to go to police headquarters, where they sometimes had to wait three hours. In the new courtroom, they get help in 30 minutes.

“It’s the middle of night,” said Joan Mintz Ulmer, a spokeswoman for the local chapter of Women Against Abuse. “They’ve just been beaten. They could have injuries. They have their children with them. They are terrified, are truly in crisis. It was hard to go through a system that felt so menacing.” Night Court Started Last Year

More : query.nytimes.com

Across Northern California several weeks ago, television viewers struggled to make sense of Ramon Salcido’s peculiar grin as he confessed to a bloody rampage that left his wife, daughters, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law dead.

Across Northern California several weeks ago, television viewers struggled to make sense of Ramon Salcido’s peculiar grin as he confessed to a bloody rampage that left his wife, daughters, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law dead.

The televised smirk that shocked so many people drew nods of recognition at a three-hour-a-week therapy program for men who batter or berate their wives, partners or children. Mr. Salcido’s facial expression, many of those enrolled said, is common among violent men, a conspiratorial smile that says, ‘’When your woman gets out of line, what’s a man to do?'’

‘’The smile is not the absence of remorse or a sign of pathology,'’ said Hamish Sinclair, who runs the men’s program for Marin County Abused Women’s Services, which primarily serves the victims of domestic violence. ‘’It is a signal of what the batterer believes we will support - the male-role right to subordinate his women and children.'’

More : query.nytimes.com

The air was chilly and choked with rain the other day as Shirley Lowery wrapped a white scarf over her head and hurried into the county courthouse here.

She did not want to be late. She felt that her freedom and even her life were at stake.

Before then, Mrs. Lowery, a bus driver, had been hiding out for days like a criminal. She had even moved, with the help of bodyguards, to a secret new apartment.

But when she walked into the courthouse alone that morning, she did so, her daughter said, “because she thought she’d be safe in the halls of justice.”

A few minutes later, the 51-year-old woman, a grandmother of 11, was dead. Murder in Courthouse

More : query.nytimes.com

Defying conservative allies, Gov. George E. Pataki signed an executive order today creating a task force to investigate domestic violence cases that could involve gay or unmarried couples.

The new task force is to investigate domestic violence that has resulted in death and examine how social workers, judges, police officers and prosecutors handled the cases.

But Mr. Pataki’s order does not define what constitutes a household or family, putting him at odds with the Republican-controlled Senate. The order closely resembles a measure passed earlier this year in the Democratic Assembly that was blocked in the Senate largely because it did not define a family as a married heterosexual couple.

Mr. Pataki’s decision to enact the measure was in part spurred by the killing in February of Galina Komar, a Brooklyn woman who repeatedly complained to the courts that a former boyfriend, Benito Oliver, was violating a judge’s protective order. Mr. Oliver fatally shot Ms. Komar and then turned the gun on himself.

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Incidents of domestic violence can surge over the holidays in line with increased alcohol consumption, money worries, and other stresses – and employers that ignore the problem could place the safety of their employees and workplace at risk, according to the Better Business Bureau.

Studies have shown that billions of dollars are lost each year in health-care costs due to domestic violence. In addition, 96% of domestic-violence victims experience problems at work related to abuse, and 30% lose their jobs, in part due to domestic violence. Victims of domestic violence may be stalked by their batterers at work, call in sick due to injuries, or need time off to obtain legal relief.

The good news is that there are effective ways entrepreneurs can support employees who are survivors of domestic violence – ways that will also increase productivity and safety, and do so at little cost. The BBB recommends that employers adopt and spell out policies for coping with issues related to domestic violence.

SYMPATHY AND COUNSEL. Encouraging workers to look to the employer for help can provide an opportunity to keep the workplace safe and minimize productivity losses. Employers can also provide security officials and reception staff with clear instructions outlining what they need to do if a stalker or perpetrator of domestic violence gravitates to the victim’s workplace. Appropriate training in issues relating to as safety and confidentiality can be provided to a designated employee, who can then take responsibility for responding to domestic violence issues in the workplace.

For more information, check with the Commission on Domestic Violence, an arm of the American Bar Assn. Their Web site offers online tips for employers and a publication including guidelines for employers who must deal with the issue of domestic violence spilling over into the workplace.

Source : businessweek.com

An evening in Anywhere, U.S.A. John and Jane Doe are in their bedroom. Above them, and clearly audible, a man is beating a woman. He is shouting, she is weeping. The Does look at one another; Mr. Doe then looks toward the phone. Should he call the police? A none-of-our-business shrug, and he turns off the light instead.

The scene is a fiction – a television spot that is part of a new public education campaign from the Family Violence Prevention Fund. But it is also a fact. Millions of Americans have known for a long time what it is to hear the neighbors battling, or see a wife take a punch from her husband. Those that didn’t know do now. The story of O. J. and Nicole Simpson has become a national teach-in.

Last year the fund released a poll showing that the great majority of Americans realized domestic violence was a serious problem. More than a third said they had witnessed it. And they had finally lost patience with the two great excuses: “He was drunk” and “She asked for it.” But when it came to doing something about the problem, most admitted to feeling helpless.

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Even though his scalp would be bloodied from getting slammed against a door or his neck splotched with fingerprint-shaped bruises, Patrick Letellier’s injuries were often dismissed as nothing more than rough “sex play.”

Back then, there were no shelters for battered gay men or domestic violence services for homosexuals. And police were often not inclined to get involved in household disputes involving same-sex couples.

“I got really good at hiding things and wore long pants and long-sleeve shirts,” said Letellier, a 43-year-old journalist from San Francisco.

Nearly 20 years later, as gays and lesbians have achieved greater recognition, so too has the darker side of same-sex relationships.

More : washingtonpost.com

The oldest battered women’s shelter in New England, established in 1975, is setting precedent and making many feminists nervous in the process.

Transition House not only launched a “gender-neutral” search for a new executive director but also appointed a man as its interim director. Transition House explains that it simply wants to hire the best person for the job, and interviewing men doubles the chance of success.

Feminists of my ilk, who judge individuals on merit rather than gender, are applauding. (Admittedly, a muttered “it’s about time!” may also be heard.)

Feminists who believe that gender must be a deciding factor in who addresses domestic violence and how it should be addressed, are appalled. They view the very prospect of hiring a male director as violating the “mission” of the shelter movement: to assist battered women and children.

In short, the “women-only feminists” believe males should be precluded from major employment and entry at shelters. Indeed, women’s shelters often deny entry to male children over 12-years-old. (The legality of doing so at tax-funded shelters is dubious, to say the least.)

More : foxnews.com

This morning at 9:30 o’clock both Houses of the Legislature were called to order, and the consideration of the Vicksburg troubles continued as the special order of the day.

Source : query.nytimes.com

Amnesty International USA, the Family Violence Prevention Fund and the Women’s Edge Coalition today applauded the introduction of groundbreaking legislation to combat the global crisis of violence against women and girls. The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) would apply the force of U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid totaling $1 billion over five years toward preventing abuse and exploitation that is estimated to affect one of every three women worldwide.

Introduced by Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN), the legislation authorizes over $200 million annually in foreign assistance for international programs that prevent violence, support health programs and survivor services, encourage legal accountability and a change of public attitudes, promote access to economic opportunity projects and education, and better address violence against women in humanitarian situations. The legislation would deal with preventing violence in all of its forms, including honor killings, bride burnings, acid burnings, dowry deaths, genital mutilation, mass rapes in war, or domestic violence.

In 2005, Amnesty International USA, the Family Violence Prevention Fund and Women’s Edge Coalition convened meetings to develop the legislation, recognizing the need for a comprehensive worldwide approach, rather than a country-by-country approach or one that looks at separate challenges depending on the form the violence takes. More than 150 U.S.-based experts and 40 women’s groups overseas gave advice on the bill.

Source : forbes.com

Attorney General Judson Harmon to-day made public his views respecting the political situation, especially emphasizing his opinion on the question of “Federal interference in local affairs,” on which the Attorney General does not agree with the protest in the Chicago platform

Source : query.nytimes.com

At the urgent request of Gov. Elias M. Ammons of Colorado, President Wilson to-day ordered Federal troops sent to the scene of strike disorder, and issued a proclamation directing all persons “engaged in or connected with said domestic violence” to retire peaceably to their homes on or before April 30.

Source : query.nytimes.com

For more than a decade, friends and police investigators say, Joel B. Steinberg physically and emotionally abused his lover, Hedda Nussbaum. And in that time, they say, a woman who once was an intelligent and effective editor and author seemed to lose all self-respect and become unable to extricate or defend herself.

For more than a decade, friends and police investigators say, Joel B. Steinberg physically and emotionally abused his lover, Hedda Nussbaum. And in that time, they say, a woman who once was an intelligent and effective editor and author seemed to lose all self-respect and become unable to extricate or defend herself.

But only recently, authorities believe, did Mr. Steinberg’s abuse of Ms. Nussbaum turn to violence against their 6-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. Last Monday, the girl was found near death in the family’s Greenwich Village apartment, and in succeeding days, her death and the arrest of her adoptive parents for murder have underlined the widespread problems of wife and child abuse, and how closely connected they are. Child and Wife Abuse Linked

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A year ago, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and the Police Department announced a broad initiative to fight domestic violence by stepping up arrests and greatly expanding training. Yesterday, the issue became tangled in the continuing rancor between the Mayor and the City Council after the Council released a report charging that virtually none of those promises have been kept.

The report forced the Mayor to defend his program, and he insisted that it had produced a significant change. Council members, he said, “don’t understand law enforcement as well as they should.”

The 45-page report, issued by the Council’s Public Safety Committee, said that arrests in domestic violence cases had not increased significantly despite a new police policy requiring arrests for every domestic violence felony and many misdemeanors. The department is not properly training its officers in abuse-related issues or relieving their clerical burdens, the report said, and no senior officials have been assigned to oversee the progress of the initiative.

“The message that domestic violence is a serious crime seems not to have reached the rank and file of the department,” said Peter F. Vallone, the Council Speaker. “These failures come not from a lack of concern on the part of the individual police officers involved, but rather, according to the findings of this report, they come from a department that has failed to follow up on its own promises to the victims of these crimes.”

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ANNE MENARD is executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which was formed in 1976. The coalition represents 18 programs across the state that provide services to women, who are the primary victims of domestic violence.

ANNE MENARD is executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which was formed in 1976. The coalition represents 18 programs across the state that provide services to women, who are the primary victims of domestic violence.

The coalition’s goals include formulating public policy to address domestic violence, providing services to victims and their families, and increasing public awareness of the problem.

Ms. Menard, 34 years old, has worked with victims of domestic violence for about 12 years. She has directed the coalition for more than a year. Before that, she was co-coordinator of Hartford Interval House, the largest shelter in the state for victims of domestic violence, and has been a counselor specializing in sexual assault.

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It is one of the most frequently committed but least reported crimes: Several instances of domestic violence occur every day in Prince William County, but few result in arrests because many victims think one hit is no big deal.

Next month, which is designated for domestic violence awareness, several county agencies will work together to educate the public about state laws and the county’s numerous social services agencies, as well as to debunk misconceptions about what constitutes domestic violence.

The Greater Prince William Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Council, a group comprising several agencies and police departments from the county, Manassas and Manassas Park, will sponsor a series of events in October: a breakfast for the county’s law enforcement and social services professionals; a legal training seminar on child abuse cases; a candlelight vigil for the public; and a workshop on defusing tense workplace situations created by a partner’s abusive relationship.

More : washingtonpost.com

NAPA, California (CNN) – When the staff of Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa began asking all females over 18 who came to the emergency room if they had suffered from domestic violence, they got some surprising answers.

The results of their study changed the way the hospital deals with domestic violence. San Francisco Bureau Chief Greg Lefevre reports.

Source : edition.cnn.com

ANNE MENARD is executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which was formed in 1976. The coalition represents 18 programs across the state that provide services to women, who are the primary victims of domestic violence.

ANNE MENARD is executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which was formed in 1976. The coalition represents 18 programs across the state that provide services to women, who are the primary victims of domestic violence.

The coalition’s goals include formulating public policy to address domestic violence, providing services to victims and their families, and increasing public awareness of the problem.

Ms. Menard, 34 years old, has worked with victims of domestic violence for about 12 years. She has directed the coalition for more than a year. Before that, she was co-coordinator of Hartford Interval House, the largest shelter in the state for victims of domestic violence, and has been a counselor specializing in sexual assault.

More : query.nytimes.com

With research showing that one in four women experience domestic violence at some time in their lives, one of the places to work towards prevention in the next generation is through schools, by introducing this issue and related topics as part of preparing children for adult life.

So our organisation in Westminster produced a pack for schools on domestic violence prevention. The launch of the pack in October this year arose from three years’ direct work with schools - taking the issue into the classroom with young people aged eight years and over.

Training for staff about domestic violence was also carried out by our freelance consultant, Thangam Debbonaire. She provided INSET days for school staff, and then trained two or three teachers in six different schools on how to take the issue into the classroom through a range of activities related to the curriculum.

The subsequent schools pack includes activities on dealing with conflict, building friendships, supporting someone who is being treated badly, and how boys and girls should treat one another. The idea is to build strong relationships and so a healthy society.

Research shows that domestic violence takes place for a complex range of reasons. Involving young people who have not necessarily experienced domestic violence as well as those who have lived with it is therefore necessary for any prevention project, and schools include children and young people with many different experiences.

More: guardian.co.uk

The Message of the President on the recent occurrences in Louisiana is a very moderate, strong, and sensible document, and we believe that it will make a favorable impression on the country.

Source : query.nytimes.com

At the end of a year scarred by complaints over the criminal justice system’s handling of domestic violence cases, New York State’s top judge announced yesterday that in 1997, each borough will have special courts with handpicked, trained judges to oversee such cases.

The announcement by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye was among a wide-ranging set of moves that she plans in response to the changing caseloads that now crowd court dockets and prisons.

Just as they have across the country, felony cases have declined in New York, particularly in New York City, and so have the number of trials. But with the city’s Police Department bearing down on entry-level crimes, misdemeanor cases have soared.

This year, more than a million misdemeanor cases will be filed statewide, up from about 790,000 in 1989. Conversely, about 67,000 felony cases will be filed in 1996, down from 80,000 in 1989.

As a result, some judges assigned to felony trials have been idle while many who preside over misdemeanors are swamped. Yesterday’s systemwide changes acknowledge the problems that have arisen: rampant violations of a state law requiring that a defendant be arraigned within 24 hours of arrest; a growing ‘’culture of unreadiness'’ among lawyers who appear in court; the insensitivity of some judges toward domestic violence.

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Experts say that every day in this country, three women are killed by domestic violence.

On Thursday, one was buried here.

Tracey Helms, young mother of two, was trying to shelter a friend from an abusive husband when, the police say, he showed up at Ms. Helms’s house and beat her to death with a steel shovel.

‘’As she crawled away across the front lawn, he hit her again,'’ said Bobby Haulk, the Monroe police chief. ‘’And again and again.'’

Ms. Helms’s husband and children were sleeping inside. Her husband found her body that morning, after he looked out a window and saw an apron lying on the grass.

It is one thing to die, her family says. It is another to be killed.

‘’If it was a car wreck,'’ said Freddy Smith, Ms. Helms’s father-in-law. ‘’If it was some sort of accident.'’ His voice trailed off.

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In a new adaptation of law enforcement technology, city probation officers in Brooklyn are using electronic bracelets to monitor the whereabouts of domestic violence offenders and to sound an immediate alarm if an offender violates probation by going within 500 feet of a victim’s home, the Giuliani administration and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office announced yesterday.

For several years, courts have ordered use of electronic ankle bracelets to monitor the location of defendants released on bail and put under house arrest. And parole and probation officers have used the devices to keep track of convicts released from prison.

The new program, which began in May, uses the bracelets in combination with electronic signal devices placed in the homes of victims of domestic violence.

Assaults and killings of domestic violence victims who could not be protected despite prior convictions of their attackers and protection orders issued by judges have long been among the most frustrating and embarrassing crimes for the law enforcement and judicial systems. Officials said the new strategy could prove a powerful tool in preventing such attacks.

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Maureen L. seems in control of her life and her emotions, but looks can be deceiving. After being married to a man who beat her and verbally abused her for 10 years, she married another one in 1990. Even she cannot explain exactly how she ended up in the same dangerous place twice.

Maureen, who is now divorced, and four other women, who spoke on the condition that their full names not be used, told their stories last week to seasoned New Jersey state troopers. They were trying to help law enforcement officers understand one of the most difficult calls they have to answer: the cry for help in domestic violence.

‘’For a police officer, domestic violence is an explosive situation,'’ said Barry A. Johnson, a former Englewood police officer and a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in domestic violence. ‘’It’s unpredictable. The officer is on foreign soil, and often he is looked on as the enemy by both parties.'’

Mr. Johnson and the five women were among the participants in two days of training for state troopers this month conducted by the Violence Institute of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey at the State Police Academy here. The 50 troopers, stationed in rural areas of the state with no local police forces, are meant to serve as guides for other troopers in dealing with domestic violence.

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Men in Bangladesh vowed to fight disfiguring acid attacks against women, as the U.N. and European Union marked International Women’s Day on Thursday with calls for an end to violence and discrimination.

In India, a Mumbai company launched a new taxi service for women, with female cabbies at the wheel to make the customers feel safer.

Prices of flowers doubled in Vietnam as men presented bouquets to their girlfriends and wives in the communist nation’s version of Valentine’s Day.

While countries such as Afghanistan reported progress in improving women’s access to education and to political office — with 2 million girls returning to school since the fall of the ultraconservative Taliban regime — widespread discrimination and domestic violence continue.

The U.N. Development Fund for Women said at least one out of three Afghan women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused, with the abuser usually a family member or someone she knows. Rarely is anyone prosecuted or reprimanded.

More : iht.com

By the time Karen Straw killed her husband, she was well known to the police. But until then, they knew her only as the victim.

By the time Karen Straw killed her husband, she was well known to the police. But until then, they knew her only as the victim.

She returned home shortly before midnight from a store last Dec. 18 to find her husband sitting at the table of her sixth-floor studio apartment in Jamaica, Queens, rolling a joint.

According to her account, Clifton Straw grabbed her and threatened her with a knife. First, he smoked crack. Then, with the knife to her throat and with her two children watching, he raped her. In the morning, she tried to flee. They struggled. A witness said he had a knife. So did she. She plunged it into his chest, twice. When Police Officer Dave Benejan responded at 8:57 A.M., he found Ms. Straw in the lobby, hysterical.

‘’I stabbed my husband,'’ she said. ‘’Please help him.'’

It was too late to save Clifton Straw. There still may be time to help his wife.

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Their faces are far younger than those that appear in public service advertisements about domestic violence. They are too young to drink legally and, in many cases, too young to vote.

But a new report suggests that one in five adolescent girls become the victims of physical or sexual violence, or both, in a dating relationship.

And the experience of such violence, the researchers found, is frequently associated with serious health problems, including drug abuse, unhealthy weight control practices, risky sexual behavior, teenage pregnancy and suicide attempts.

Of the high school girls, ages 14 to 18, surveyed in the study, about 20 percent reported that they had been hit, slapped, shoved or forced into sexual activity by a dating partner.

Dr. Jay Silverman, an assistant professor of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health and the lead author of the report, called the numbers ‘’extremely high.'’ It appears today in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Soul singer James Brown was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly pushed his wife to the floor during an argument, authorities said.

Brown, 70, was charged with criminal domestic violence and was to remain jailed until a bond hearing Thursday morning, Aiken County sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Michael Frank said.

Investigators say Brown shoved his wife during an argument in a bedroom at the couple’s home in Beech Island, 70 miles southwest of Columbia.

Tomi Rae Brown, 33, had scratches and bruises to her right arm and hip and was taken to a hospital, Frank said.

James Brown’s publicist Simone Smalls declined to comment Wednesday.

Brown is known as the Godfather of Soul for a multitude of hits, including “I Got You (I Feel Good),” “Sex Machine” and “Living in America.” Last month he was honored at the Kennedy Center as “one of the most influential musicians of the past 50 years.”

Brown served a 2 1/2-year prison term after a 1988 arrest on drug and assault charges and was convicted of a drug-related offense in 1998. He was granted a state pardon in May.

Source : edition.cnn.com

THE woman who called 911 spoke in a whisper. Her husband had beaten her, she told the emergency operator, and she was afraid of what else he would do to her and their 1-year-old daughter.

Soon afterward, when a Nassau County police officer arrived at her house, the woman said that everything was fine. She apologized for calling 911 and said she did not want to file a complaint against her husband.

As required by law, the officer recorded the incident, which became another statistic in the growing number of incidents of domestic violence reported on Long Island.

In Nassau County reports of domestic violence have steadily risen since 1991, from 8,063 to 10,012 last year. The totals do not necessarily reflect violations of the law, but include all reports of domestic arguments.

In Suffolk County reports climbed, from 21,421 to 26,954.

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Gov. George E. Pataki pressed ahead today with his effort to stiffen New York’s laws against domestic violence, proposing lifetime orders of protection, tougher bail requirements for accused batterers and increased penalties for several offenses.

The Governor said his legislation would strengthen protections for victims by insuring that judges, prosecutors and the police have more tools to fight domestic violence, which elected officials of both major parties have increasingly championed.

Mr. Pataki pushed through laws in his first term that made defying an order of protection a felony and that require Family Court judges to consider domestic violence in child custody cases. He also was one of the most outspoken critics of a Brooklyn Criminal Court judge, Lorin Duckman, who was later removed from the bench after being accused of showing bias against prosecutors and disparaging blacks and women. Judge Duckman drew criticism in 1996 after he lowered the bail of a man jailed on domestic abuse charges, who was then released and who subsequently killed a former girlfriend and himself.

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Jessica Lee endured abuse from her high school boyfriend for two years, breaking up only after he burned her with cigarettes and slammed a beer bottle over her head. She has now joined an ambitious initiative to help teens in similar plights.

On Thursday, Lee and other former victims will be on hand in New York to help announce the creation of the first nationwide hot line specifically designed to combat the widespread problem of teen dating violence.

It will be run by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which mostly serves adults with its current operations. Calls to the new line will be answered by teens, plus other young adults, in the belief that young abuse victims would be more comfortable confiding in someone their own age.

“I wrestled over telling people what was happening to me because I was ashamed,"said Lee, 19, who is now a freshman in Missouri State University’s pre-nursing program in her hometown of Springfield, Mo.

More : foxnews.com

For the first time, a Federal District Court judge has upheld the constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, a Federal law that made crimes against the opposite sex a violation of the victim’s civil rights.

The judge, Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven, ruled in a case involving a Connecticut woman identified in court papers as Jane Doe. Her husband’s lawyers had challenged the constitutionality of the civil rights provision as “an open and sweeping invitation to the Federal Government to intervene almost at will in almost any area of anyone’s life.”

But the judge, after reviewing the four-year legislative history of the statute and the conclusions that Congressional committees reached before the bill went to a vote, concluded that the Violence Against Women Act was “narrowly tailored and reasonably adopted to accomplish a constitutionally permitted end.”

The woman suing under the 1994 law moved out of the couple’s home in Darien, Conn., last year and now lives in Riverside, Conn. She said her husband repeatedly threatened to kill her, beat her and threw household objects at her. Her suit said he forced her “to be a ’slave’ and perform all manual labor.”

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In the beginning, Bozena L. felt flattered by the attention her new husband showered on her. He walked her to work, picked her up afterward and was always concerned about where she went. In the style of many Polish men who love to act like gallant knights, he bowed his head and kissed women on the hand.

But as he began to abuse her, she realized his protectiveness was really jealousy. Now 15 years later, after suffering repeated beatings, she has brought criminal charges against him and filed for divorce. But Bozena, 47, and their two sons still live with the man she has long feared.

When her husband, Caesar, a burly 60-year-old with a lumbering stride, came home to their cramped apartment on a recent night as Bozena sat with two visitors in a bedroom, he seethed with anger. He entered his bedroom, now separate from hers. Ever so slightly, she quivered.

Domestic violence is becoming a public issue in Poland, a nation where the sanctity of the family is of almost mythical importance and where most homes are organized along strict patriarchal lines. An often quoted Polish proverb says, ‘’If a man does not beat his wife, her liver rots.'’

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Critical arguments over who was beating whom in the stormy marriage of O. J. and Nicole Brown Simpson, and whether the jury should hear anything on the subject, were postponed today after defense lawyers angrily asserted that prosecutors yesterday “dumped” on them an 85-page motion on the issue and 1,044 pages of related material, denying them adequate time to prepare.

Judge Lance A. Ito has yet to rule on when a still more critical hearing, on the admissibility of DNA evidence, will be held. However he decides, it now seems clear that testimony in the Simpson case will not begin on Jan. 4, as defense lawyers had requested.

On Friday, lawyers will wrangle over the timing of the DNA hearing and whether it will be consolidated into the trial, as the defense has requested. They will also finish arguments over some crucial decibels: that is, whether statements that Mr. Simpson made to Roosevelt Grier, a former football player who is now an ordained minister, during a jailhouse visit last month are protected by the clergy-penitent privilege, or if Mr. Simpson waived that right by speaking too loudly – so loudly that a guard heard what he said.

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Albert D. rolled his eyes and grimaced when he was told he had to spend Labor Day weekend in the Sussex County jail.

“If a married couple wants to patch things up between themselves,” he moaned, “why get the law involved?”

What Albert and his wife Lillian wanted to settle between themselves was her call to the police a few days earlier, saying her husband had punched and kicked her when she threatened to leave him and take their three children with her. Now she wanted to drop the complaint.

No way, said the police, prosecutor and judge. In Sussex County, in northwest New Jersey, if the authorities are called to break up a family fight, the assailant is arrested on an assault charge and goes before a Superior Court judge. Even if the victim wants to drop the charge, the prosecution goes ahead with the case. All Fights Go to Judge

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First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was joined at the White House Monday by members of Congress, the Clinton Administration and law enforcement to call for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, the 1994 law intended to provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to combat domestic violence.

“We are here today to send a clear message that if we want to stop violence against women … then we must reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act now,” the first lady said at the forum.

Mrs. Clinton was accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California), Rep. Constance Morella (R-Maryland), law enforcement from domestic violence units in Maryland and Virginia, as well as domestic violence program officials from around the country.

More : edition.cnn.com

The prime minister, Tony Blair, today launched a new campaign to reduce the number of women and children made homeless as a result of domestic violence.

The scheme, backed by £9m from the government and charity, aims to prevent victims of domestic violence from becoming homeless by setting up more refuges.

Barbara Roche, minister for social exclusion and equality, said the money would be used to set up a 24-hour helpline, an internet database of refuges and to develop new havens with councils across the country.

Speaking at the launch of the initiative at an undisclosed safe house in north London, she said: “There is a clear link between domestic violence and homelessness.

“Domestic violence accounts for 16% of those on local authority homelessness lists. Many of these families are in unsuitable B&B hotels, which don’t provide safety or security.

More : guardian.co.uk

You report that Dr. Antonia C. Novello, the Surgeon General, is calling for changes in the health care system’s response to domestic violence (some editions, Oct. 17). New York State developed the first comprehensive domestic-violence program for health care providers in the country in 1986. Since then protocols have been developed for hospital emergency departments, diagnostic and treatment centers, and maternal and infant care settings. More than 6,500 health care professionals have received training and education in our programs.

New York’s experience supports the need for and effectiveness of these programs. Research suggests, for example, that 25 percent to 40 percent of all injuries of women in emergency rooms are related to domestic violence. Yet health care providers may identify only 3 percent of these injuries as abuse related. Training for health care staff improves identification and response to battered women in medical settings.

We are pleased that the Government and the American Medical Association have recognized the need to support these important efforts. We urge all medical professionals to obtain information on domestic violence and to recognize the importance of safety as a treatment priority.

The New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and the State Department of Health can assist health care providers and facilities in responding to the state protocol and codes and can help them to participate in training and education programs. KARLA M. DIGIROLAMO Executive Director N.Y.S. Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence Troy, N.Y., Oct. 25, 1991

Source : query.nytimes.com

The killing of a woman who denounced her former husband on television for repeated beatings has prompted a national debate on domestic violence, prompting street demonstrations and an admission from a leading church figure that a ‘’machismo'’ attitude is still to blame.

The woman, Ana Orantes, 60, was beaten, thrown over a balcony at her home, doused with gasoline and burned alive last week in southern Spain, the police said. Her former husband was arrested and charged with murder, one of 60 cases this year in which a man is accused of killing his wife or former wife.

Just two weeks earlier, Ms. Orantes described on a regional television talk show nearly four decades of beatings during her marriage, and the segment has been replayed since her death.

‘’When he came home he always found a reason to argue,'’ she said. ‘’If the meal was cold, why was it cold? If it was hot, why? The point was to beat me.'’

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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

ABOUT a third of American families experience domestic violence, according to the family research laboratory at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. At least 1.8 million women are assaulted by their husbands every year and more than 1.6 million children are abused by parents.

ABOUT a third of American families experience domestic violence, according to the family research laboratory at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. At least 1.8 million women are assaulted by their husbands every year and more than 1.6 million children are abused by parents.

In an effort to combat domestic violence, which some experts believe is even more widespread than those numbers indicate, five Kentucky teachers have designed a model course for high-school students called ‘’The Prevention of Family Violence.'’ While some schools have taught domestic violence issues, this curriculum is believed to be the first comprehensive course of its kind to be taught in high schools on a statewide scale.

More : query.nytimes.com

If Super Bowl tradition holds, more women than usual will be battered today in their homes by the men in their lives; it seems an inevitable part of the post-game show. A big football game on television invariably becomes the Abuse Bowl for men conditioned by the sports culture to act out their rage on someone smaller.

Why not? After L. T. wrecked Joe Theismann’s leg, his price went up, drugs, dumb talk and all. That’s the name of the game, hit hard. Didn’t Charles Barkley once say, “This is the kind of game that if you lose, you go home and beat your wife and kids.” Can’t you take a little joke? What about Jose Conseco? Just a little family feud, in separate cars. Hey, strong men have strong appetites.

But this Super Sunday, at least, there will be something of a mixed message, thanks to the small but constructive step taken by NBC Sports and the National Football League in the airing a 30-second public service announcement addressing the issue.

The spot was produced by the Philadelphia Coalition on Domestic Violence and adapted by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting for the national audience watching today’s pregame show. The spot makes no reference to the connection between violence in the living room and violence on the playing field.

More : query.nytimes.com

Releasing the results of a year-long state study into domestic violence fatalities, Gov. George E. Pataki said yesterday that he would renew his efforts next year to pass legislation intended to broadly expand the powers of police officers and prosecutors in handling domestic violence cases.

The study by the State Commission on Domestic Violence Fatalities, which was appointed by Mr. Pataki, found that in 57 domestic violence murders committed between 1991 and 1995, offenders in 70 percent of the cases had previously physically abused their victims. The commission also found that in a third of the cases, the killers had violated orders of protection.

Surrounding himself with commission members and relatives of a domestic violence murder victim during a news conference in Manhattan yesterday, Mr. Pataki seized on the statistics to strengthen his call for tougher penalties in domestic violence cases.

‘’These things do not come out of the blue,'’ the Governor said.

More : query.nytimes.com

Dwight Gooden was arrested early Sunday for allegedly punching his live-in girlfriend in the face, police said.

The former All-Star pitcher was charged with domestic violence battery and was being held Sunday without bond at Hillsborough County Jail. It wasn’t immediately known if he had an attorney.

Jail officials said Gooden, a special assistant for the New York Yankees, was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday morning.

He was arrested by Tampa police at 12:44 a.m., according to jail records. Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said the dispute occurred at the home of Monique Moore, Gooden’s girlfriend.

“She threw a handset from a telephone at him and he punched her in the face,” McElroy said. “She called 911. We responded. There was a bruise forming on her face and he was arrested.”

McElroy said Moore declined medical attention, and the 40-year-old Gooden was cooperative with police.

Yankees spokesman Rick Cerrone said the team had no comment.

Gooden spent 16 seasons in the major leagues pitching for the New York Mets, Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros and Tampa Bay Devil Rays before retiring in March 2001 with a career record of 194-112 and a 3.51 ERA.

He became the youngest Cy Young Award winner ever at age 20 in 1985 with the Mets, then helped them win the World Series a year later.

In June 1994, Gooden was suspended for 60 days for testing positive for cocaine. He tested positive for cocaine again while on suspension and was sidelined for the 1995 season.

Gooden was also involved in a scuffle with Tampa police after a traffic stop in 1986. He was arrested for drunken driving in February 2002 in Tampa, along with having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle and driving with a suspended license. Another suspended-license arrest followed in January 2003.

Source : sports.espn.go.com

October is domestic violence awareness month, and nothing cries out for awareness so much as the misconceptions that have been constructed around this issue by politically correct feminists.

I was once beaten so badly by a boyfriend that I am legally blind in my right eye. In our culture, being a “victim” makes me an expert on domestic violence. The truth is quite different. Being on the wrong end of a hurled fist doesn’t make me an expert on anything. The only insight I have on domestic violence comes from endlessly turning one question over and over again in my mind: Why did I stay?

Feminist explanations have been worse than useless. I was not oppressed by patriarchy — I was battered by one specific man. I didn’t suffer from the Stockholm Syndrome — I simply refused to give up on a commitment.

The latter explanation I find particularly galling. To suggest an emotional interdependence between captor and captive is insulting. What I did was assume personal responsibility. I simply worked harder at the relationship and hoped for the best.

More : foxnews.com

‘MY boyfriend didn’t like what I was wearing today. He told me to change, but I said no. So he grabbed me and threw me up against the wall.'’

‘’MY boyfriend didn’t like what I was wearing today. He told me to change, but I said no. So he grabbed me and threw me up against the wall.'’

The statement is printed on the cover of a pamphlet published by the Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven and being distributed to thousands of high school students in Connecticut.

According to Domestic Violence Services, as many as 65 percent of the nation’s teen-age girls have been in an abusive relationship with a boyfriend and have been too afraid to talk about it. These destructive relationships among teen-agers are on the rise, said social service officials. Three-quarters of the 18 domestic violence agencies now run programs for high school students on abusive relationships. The programs also deal with abuse between parent and child or among siblings.

‘’One of the major causes of relationship abuse is growing up in an abusive or uncaring environment,'’ said Rosemary Szczesiul, coordinator of community education for the domestic violence agency in New Haven. Last year, she started a program for teen-agers in 13 towns and cities in New Haven County.

More : query.nytimes.com

For one immigrant victim of domestic violence, the problems began as soon as she reunited with her husband in the United States last summer, nearly a year after their wedding in New Delhi.

“When I started opening my boxes, my husband said, ‘You are not from a good family,’ ” said the woman, tears filling her eyes as she recalled the insult. “He was expecting gold bracelets and pendants. I used to hear about dowries when I was growing up, but I never thought it would be an issue with me.”

Her husband, a lawyer, would kick her and pull her hair, sometimes in front of his parents. “On the second day I was here, he started twisting my hands, saying, ‘Call your father.’ ” He wanted a dowry – preferably in gold – to be delivered.

The woman eventually ran away from her husband and his family, ending up with a sister who lives in Queens. Her sister had seen a flier advertising Sakhi, a three-year-old organization of Indian women formed to combat domestic violence, and urged her to call them. “They really understood what I am going through,” said the woman, who requested anonymity out of fear. “Their being Indian really helped.” ‘Fear of Calling Authorities’

More : query.nytimes.com

A new study of domestic violence has failed to find any patterns or indicators to help the police anticipate which of thousands of violent incidents reported annually are most likely to result in a killing.

A new study of domestic violence has failed to find any patterns or indicators to help the police anticipate which of thousands of violent incidents reported annually are most likely to result in a killing.

As the subject of domestic violence gained increased political and academic attention nationwide, research accumulating in the last decade raised hopes of finding some evidence, like frequency or seriousness of previous domestic disputes, that could help predict which couples were most likely to be involved in fatal violence. Computers, for instance, have helped uncover patterns in where robberies are committed.

Predicting domestic homicide is considered critical, not only to save lives but also to protect police departments and municipalities against multimillion-dollar liability suits for not protecting spouses who are hurt or killed.

More : query.nytimes.com

As the domestic violence coordinator at a municipal hospital in the Bronx, I was pleased to see the article ‘’Striking Back'’ (June 28) examining New York City’s response to the issue of domestic violence. But I was disturbed by one of the article’s final sentences, ‘’Homicides are rare in domestic violence cases, experts say.'’ This is an inaccurate and potentially dangerous statement.

There is clear evidence that many perpetrators of domestic violence do, in fact, kill their victims. According to the 1992 Uniform Crime Reports of the F.B.I., four women are killed every day by their male partners. One third of all women who are murdered die at the hands of a husband or boyfriend. It is estimated that 52 percent of female murder victims were killed by a current or former partner.

The goal of the Domestic Violence Movement is to help significantly reduce the incidence of domestic violence by reshaping public attitudes about battering, and to work toward creating an atmosphere in which all domestic violence is not tolerated or excused. We can’t achieve this goal without the support of everyone in the community.

Source : query.nytimes.com

WHEN the police arrest men who are assaulting their wives or lovers, it can sometimes lead to more attacks once the men are released, according to a major new study of domestic violence.

The new findings suggest that factors in the men’s lives, like whether they have jobs, affect the likelihood that they will strike again. As a result, the findings call into question the current wisdom among criminologists, that arresting their attackers is the best way to protect battered women from further violence. The findings also challenge the effectiveness of recent laws in 15 states and the District of Columbia that require arrests in all cases of domestic battery.

But experts cautioned against wholesale legislative changes based on the new research. Some said the new findings suggested that lawmakers had moved too quickly after earlier research. Role of Joblessness

More : query.nytimes.com

DEBATE about the law’s treatment of domestic violence used to center on the definition of “violence.” Now, the debate is about the definition of “domestic.”

The argument is not theoretical. It is stalling legislation that both major parties in New York claim they want. Yes, after a season of loud publicity about battered women; after the pointed political controversy about the death of Galina Komar, a woman killed by her former boyfriend shortly after a judge released him from jail; after a campaign by prosecutors frustrated with laws that impede their prosecution of suspected batterers, legislation to change those laws is going nowhere.

Welcome to politics, Albany style, where even when Democrats and Republicans say they agree on a goal, they can’t agree on how to reach it. On this issue, the Republican-led State Senate passed its version, the Democratic-led Assembly passed its version, and compromise has, so far, been elusive. “They are so close,” said Patti Jo Newell of the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “Negotiations could take place, but they don’t because of politics.”

More : query.nytimes.com

Domestic violence is receiving “little attention” from the government because of concentration on street crime and gun violence, it was claimed today.

The crime reduction charity Nacro said in a report that this meant some of the most vulnerable people in society were not being properly protected.

The report calls for the development of better services to support women in their homes, more services for children caught up in domestic violence, and investment in education and prevention campaigns.

Underlying causes of domestic violence - such as overcrowded or poor housing, poverty and unemployment - must also be addressed, it said.

Nacro spokesman Richard Garside said: “The most vulnerable victims of violence are not always the most visible. Many violent crimes that are committed behind a closed door and in private have received little attention.

More : guardian.co.uk

Confirming a longstanding trend in crime and society, a new Justice Department study released yesterday shows a sharp drop in domestic murders, particularly the killings of black men by their black women partners, which fell 74 percent over the last two decades.

But the report also underscored how the face of domestic violence in America has changed. Even as the number of black victims has fallen, the number of white women killed by their husbands and boyfriends in fact rose slightly, to 876 in 1998 from 849 in 1976.

The report itself did not address the reasons for this discrepancy and many experts expressed puzzlement over it. But some criminologists and women’s advocates said the explanation may be that black women traditionally were much more likely to be victims of domestic homicide than white women, so that the legal, social and economic changes of recent years have helped black women more than white women. Paradoxically, white women pushed most visibly for tougher laws against domestic violence and for shelters for abused women.

More : query.nytimes.com

Police and court protection for victims of family violence in the New York City metropolitan region has improved sharply in the last five years, social workers and law-enforcement officials say, but most counties still lack comprehensive and coordinated programs to prevent the abuse and help the victims.

Police and court protection for victims of family violence in the New York City metropolitan region has improved sharply in the last five years, social workers and law-enforcement officials say, but most counties still lack comprehensive and coordinated programs to prevent the abuse and help the victims.

Expanded police arrest powers and easier access to protective court orders for women, the victims in 90 percent of domestic attacks, reflect a dramatic turnabout by authorities nationwide to treat family violence as a serious crime instead of as a family spat.

The experts acknowledge that some cases remain beyond their control. But they say that tougher arrest and prosecution policies will eventually deter more violence of the kind that erupted recently in Suffolk County, where in a nine-day period, three women under court protection were fatally shot by their estranged or former husbands, who then killed themselves. In fact, the experts say, there are already encouraging signs in New Jersey and Westchester County.

More : query.nytimes.com

THE incidence of domestic violence, including violence against children, is increasing in Westchester, a county task force has reported, and no socioeconomic group is immune. The panel recommended the creation of a Westchester Domestic Violence Council to coordinate efforts to reverse the trend and urged more training for Family Court judges.

The report was issued late last month by the task force, which was appointed last year by the Chairman of the County Board of Legislators, Stephen P. Tenore. Following interviews with lawyers, social workers, members of the District Attorney’s staff and others, the panel reached some grim conclusions.

In addition to the high-profile cases – like the 1993 fatal attack on the Bronxville heiress Anne Scripps Douglas, allegedly by her husband, Scott Douglas, who later jumped to his death from the Tappan Zee Bridge – one in four women in Westchester are abused by their partners, the report says.

Last year, My Sisters’ Place, a shelter for abused women and their children in Yonkers, turned away 688 applicants for lack of space. Statewide last year, shelters offered refuge to 34,000 women and children, but close to the same number were refused because there were not enough beds for them, said Sherry Frohman, executive director of the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She said her nonprofit organization found that every 15 seconds in the nation a woman was beaten severely enough to require emergency medical attention.

More : query.nytimes.com

Faces disfigured by broken noses, jaws and cheekbones and scarred by cuts and burns – these are the tell-tale signs of domestic violence that may haunt victims even after they leave abusive relationships and attempt to move on to happier, healthier lives. Such outward symbols of a painful past can serve as a constant reminder and ongoing burden, which is why Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has launched an innovative new program designed to address both the physical and emotional remnants of domestic violence.

Through the Fresh Outlook program, as many as 24 victims of abuse may receive reconstructive surgery free of charge during the next year or more, thanks to a collaborative effort involving Cedars-Sinai, medical staff and community organizations. The program’s primary mission is to enable those disfigured by domestic violence – and without the financial resources to address the problem – to regain the self-confidence needed to assume productive, fully functional roles in society. So far, three women have successfully completed their surgical procedures, and additional surgeries are scheduled to resume in January 2000. To date, 10 plastic surgeons are donating their time and professional services to support Fresh Outlook.

“Most people who have suffered abuse already have damaged self-esteem, and their self-worth may be derived in large degree by physical appearance,” explained Michael Nanko, Ph.D., Vice-President, Continuing Care Services and Psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai. “For these former victims of violence – who’ve done all the right things to get their lives in order – physical reminders of past abuse can cause them to walk around with a continuing sense of shame and remorse.”

More : sciencedaily.com

Domestic violence is a complex issue which affects every one of us. With one woman in four physically abused by her partner at some point in her life, the likelihood is we all know someone who lives with the terrifying threat of abuse.

Domestic violence - physical or emotional abuse - reaches every corner of our society. It does not respect class, race, religion, culture or wealth. A working class mother on a run-down estate is just as likely to be abused as a professional woman used to managing teams of staff and making million-pound decisions.

Overwhelmingly domestic violence is experienced by women and the perpetrator is male. Yet although in the vast majority of cases it is male to female, we should recognise that men, children and the elderly can be abused, and that domestic violence also occurs in gay and lesbian relationships.

The cost to society is staggering. In London a minimum of £278m is spent each year responding to domestic violence, without even taking into account medical and legal costs. And then there are the lost days at work, the increase in truancy levels, the rise in juvenile crime.

More : guardian.co.uk

Ernesto Londoño’s May 25 Metro article on John Allen Muhammad’s killings, “Muhammad’s Ex-Wife Tells of Her Fears; Sniper Sought Their Children, She Says,” provided a service to readers. Most coverage of the trial has had remarkably little to say about Mr. Muhammad’s history of domestic violence, although this appears to be at the heart of the case.

For a few weeks in 2002, Washington area residents got a taste of what it feels like to be a battered woman as they feared being shot in the head while pumping gas or mowing the lawn, not knowing where or when an attack might come or if their children would have to watch them suffer for no reason.

Battered women live like this every day, and too often the threats to their lives and the lives of their children are not adequately addressed by neighbors, friends, family, police or the courts.

Despite his credible threats against Mildred Muhammad and his violations of custody and restraining orders, Mr. Muhammad was allowed to remain free to kill innocent people. Perhaps if the courts in Washington state had taken Mildred Muhammad’s reports of threats to her and her children more seriously, Mr. Muhammad would have been incarcerated and unable to harm anyone else.

I hope that everyone who remembers the fear of being in the snipers’ sights in those weeks of 2002 will do their part to support services for survivors and accountability for abusers.

Source : washingtonpost.com

Arrests in domestic violence cases have more than quadrupled in New York City in the last four years, and Mayor Koch and Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward said yesterday that was a result of more aggressive police response to reports of family disputes.

Arrests in domestic violence cases have more than quadrupled in New York City in the last four years, and Mayor Koch and Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward said yesterday that was a result of more aggressive police response to reports of family disputes.

The surge in domestic violence arrests - which are expected to exceed 13,000 in 1988 compared with 2,764 in 1984 - far outstrips the increase in the number of domestic violence complaints reported to 911, the police emergency number, police statistics show.

In the last four years, the number of family disputes reported through 911 have increased by only 5 percent, to 200,245, the Police Department said. The number of cases in which charges of domestic violence were formally brought has risen more dramatically - up 135 percent since 1984, to 45,985. Not all those cases resulted in arrests. Since 1978, when a class-action suit challenged New York City Police Department policies in cases involving battered wives, the police have toughened their response to complaints of domestic violence, and arrests have become mandatory for all domestic cases involving felonies. In 1984, the police adopted a policy requiring a response to all 911 domestic cases, including those involving nontraditional family relationships, such as people living together. Victims Reluctant to Proceed

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Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the television series Star Trek, spoke today about the domestic violence he witnessed at home as he was grew up.

Stewart, who grew up in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, made his comments as Amnesty International launched a global campaign to cut violence against women.

The 63-year-old admitted feeling “shame, guilt and responsibility” after witnessing his mother being abused by his father and saw how violent language could easily escalate into physical violence.

He said: “I saw the self-loathing of my father, due to his inability to control his violent outbursts. I saw society, police, doctors and neighbours conspire to hide the abuse with comments like ‘She must have provoked him’ and ‘It takes two to make an argument’.”

More : guardian.co.uk

An ordinary Thursday, a month ago. Every second between midnight and midnight a woman called the police for protection from her partner. Those women were being bashed, stabbed, cut, kicked, slapped or “just” terrorised and intimidated. Very few of their assailants were arrested.

This was September 28 in Britain. It was a snapshot of everyday violence published today by Professor Betsy Stanko, director of the Violence Research Project, based on reports to all police services, Victim Support, Women’s Aid and Refuge, and Relate.

Relate’s evidence is a stiff challenge to the notion that domestic violence is the sport of the rough and unrespectable: nearly a fifth of clients on September 28 mentioned domestic violence. So, it happens in middle-class middle England.

Multiply September 28 by evey day and you come up with more than half a million incidents - 80% of these calls were by women being attacked by their men. But the problem with the response to this mayhem is that these incidents are treated as just that, incidents. Just like the 3m-plus incidents of violence last year recorded in the British Crime Survey.

More : guardian.co.uk

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that federal law provides no guarantee of a specific police response to domestic violence complaints, even when a restraining order has been issued against a potential perpetrator.

The case, a victory for cities and states that feared costly lawsuits, stemmed from allegations by a woman in Colorado that police failed to make a serious effort to enforce a restraining order against her estranged husband, who then killed her three daughters before being fatally shot by police.

The woman, Jessica Gonzales, sued the town of Castle Rock, Colo., saying that police there violated the due-process clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment by putting her off when she repeatedly phoned for help before the killings in June 1999.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for a 7 to 2 majority, said that in order for her to prevail and possibly collect damages, Gonzales would have had to show that she had been denied a benefit guaranteed by state law, such as a welfare or employment benefit. Enforcement of the order, he said, would have to be a “protected entitlement.”

More : washingtonpost.com

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed five bills into law yesterday, enacting measures concerning domestic violence, recycling, veterans’ affairs and gender-neutral language.

Two of the new laws are intended to reduce the risk of domestic violence and to protect victims of it.

One bars anyone with a conviction for domestic violence, for abuse within 10 years, for any three misdemeanors or for certain outstanding orders of protection, from obtaining a permit for a rifle or shotgun.

The other law forbids emergency shelters for victims of domestic violence to turn people away solely because they lack official documentation like a police report or an order of protection. It also mirrors a state law by expanding the definition of domestic violence victims to include not just married people but also common-law and dating couples with access to each other’s residence.

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Five days have been allowed to Gov. Sparks of Nevada in which to issue a call for a special session of the State Legislature to consider means of dealing with the Goldfield strike situation. If he fails to take action within that period President Roosevelt will order the withdrawal of Federal troops at once, and armed conflict between miners and mine owners and their forces may be the immediate effect.

Source : query.nytimes.com

On March 8, through a unanimous ruling on Crawford v. Washington, the Supreme Court affirmed a defendant’s right to face and question accusers.

More subtly, it also affirmed the power of victims of domestic violence to exercise control over their own cases – specifically over whether or not to pursue charges.

What are the circumstances of Crawford v. Washington? Michael Crawford pleaded self-defense in stabbing a man he believed had attempted to rape his wife. His wife was present during the stabbing and at one point made a taped statement to the police in which she said that the victim may not have been armed. But, she invoked marital privilege to keep from testifying against her husband at trial. In her absence, the judge accepted the taped statement she’d made to the police as “reliable,” even though the tape precluded cross-examination by the defense. Crawford was found guilty.

In his opinion on the case, Supreme Justice Scalia stated: “Dispensing with confrontation because testimony is obviously reliable is akin to dispensing with jury trial because a defendant is obviously guilty. This is not what the Sixth Amendment prescribes.

More : foxnews.com

Adolescents who engaged in violent behavior at a relatively steady rate through their teenage years and those whose violence began in their mid teens and increased over the years are significantly more likely to engage in domestic violence in their mid 20s than other young adults, according to a new University of Washington study.

“Most people think youth violence and domestic violence are separate problems, but this study shows that they are intertwined,” said Todd Herrenkohl, lead author of the study and a UW associate professor of social work.

The study also found no independent link between an individual’s use of alcohol or drugs and committing domestic violence. In addition it showed that nearly twice as many women as men said they perpetrated domestic violence in the past year including kicking, biting or punching their partner, threatening to hit or throw something at their partner, and pushing, grabbing or shoving their partner.

Data from the study came from the on-going Seattle Social Development Project which has been tracing youth development and the social and antisocial behavior of more than 800 participants. It began when they were in the fifth grade and continues to follow them into adulthood.

More : sciencedaily.com

UNITED NATIONS Nearly 60 percent of women in Ethiopia are subject to sexual violence by a partner. Domestic violence and rape account for 19 percent of disease in women in developed countries. And in Colombia, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every six days, a study from the United Nations said Tuesday.

Violence against women persists at high rates around the world, and governments are not doing enough to prevent it, according to the report from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The report, which synthesized information from various studies conducted in several countries, said while violence against women has been recognized as a violation of human rights on an international level, many national policies fall short of appropriate condemnation and protection.

“We cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a press release, until progress is made in the prevention of violence against women.

The report compiled a list of the proportion of women from 62 countries who have been the victims of violence at the hands of their partners.

Many of the highest rates were found in developing countries, such as Zambia, where 49 percent of women said they had experienced violence at some time in their lives, and Papua New Guinea, where 67 percent had. But industrial nations, like Lithuania, with 42 percent, and Australia, with 31 percent, were also near the top of the list.

More : iht.com

The House approved a sweeping anti-crime bill Friday that includes more than $3 billion to fight violence against women and seeks to protect women brought into the U.S. by the international illegal sex trade.

The catchall legislation also has provisions that would make it easier for victims to collect compensation from terrorist states and would force states to pay costs when a criminal is released from prison and commits a crime in another state.

It passed 371-1 and is expected to be approved by the Senate early next week.

Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act has been a top priority of the Clinton administration, which estimates violence against women has decreased 21 percent since the law was first passed in 1994.

More : edition.cnn.com

Women who are physically abused by a partner face a similar legacy of health problems whether they live in a modern city in the industrialized world or a traditional village in a developing country, the first global study on domestic violence has found.

In interviews with 24,000 women in 10 countries, researchers found that while there are wide variations in the rate of women experiencing sexual or other physical abuse at the hands of their partners, victims are about twice as likely as other women to suffer ill health — and the effect seems to persist long after the violence has stopped.

The study — conducted by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and PATH, a global health organization — is a landmark, said former U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.

“We don’t actually know, unless we have studies like this, how serious and pervasive violence by intimate partners really is,” said Robinson, who was not connected with the research. “For the first time, this study has used consistent means to measure violence across countries, so that we can now reasonably compare.”

More : foxnews.com

No,the real reason is that people hate Bush so much it takes their mind off their hatred for their spouses.

By Chalco | Dec 29, 2006 6:34:35 AM | Request Removal

Try to tell the dead or maimed women that domestic violence rates dropped. I am sure they would disagree with you. Seems like to me that setting the spouse on fire is the new trend.

By mbrumble | Dec 29, 2006 7:45:33 AM | Request Removal

The reporter did a very poor job of analyzing the facts behind this story. Scientific studies of randomly based samples have CONSISTENTLY shown that women assault men as often as men assault women. Yet, the reporter 1 gave no percentage breakdown at all, 2 cited only the misleading percentage of intimate to stranger violence for each gender – of course, the percentage of intimate violence is lower for men because the OVERALL rate of victimization is so much HIGHER for men, and 3 gave no source for his statistics – meaning they measure police action, not incidence. This last one is important – for example, I went to the police STILL BLEEDING from a womans assaults on two occasions, and they did nothing at all – other than warn me not to hit her back.

More : washingtonpost.com

State legislative leaders announced agreement today on a bill that would require police officers to arrest anyone suspected of seriously beating a spouse, a change the bill’s sponsors said would sharply reduce police discretion in such cases and remedy spotty enforcement of domestic violence laws.

Experts in domestic violence say police officers now often fail to arrest abusive spouses because victims decline to press charges or because officers do not view the crime as serious. In either case, lax enforcement often opens the door to future violence, the experts say.

The bipartisan proposal would also give the victims of domestic violence greater leeway to decide whether their cases should proceed in criminal or family court. Currently, proponents of the change say, battered women often choose initially to go to family court, and they are not allowed to change their minds and pursue criminal charges later, regardless of the extent of their injuries.

The legislation, which is virtually assured passage in both houses of the Legislature, is intended to give uniformity to the patchwork of police policies across the state that currently govern the enforcement of domestic violence laws.

More : query.nytimes.com

With statistics showing that domestic violence occurs in one in four families, stories like Ms. Bell’s are certainly not unusual, social workers and lawyers say. But such cases have taken on an added urgency in recent months following the beating death in Bronxville over New Year’s weekend of the newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas and last month’s brutal stabbing death of Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of O. J. Simpson.

Mrs. Douglas’s husband, Scott Douglas, was suspected in the death of his wife, and he apparently jumped from the Tappan Zee Bridge after the beating and was later found drowned. Mr. Simpson has been arrested on charges of murdering his former wife and a male acquaintance of hers. Questions Raised

High-profile cases like the Douglas and Simpson murders have served not only to focus attention on the issue of domestic violence but also to raise questions about whether social service agencies, the police and the court system are adequately addressing the problem.

More : query.nytimes.com

Sacramento Kings forward Ron Artest was arrested Monday after a woman called 911 from his home saying she had been assaulted.

Placer County sheriff’s deputies responded about 9:30 a.m. to Artest’s five-acre estate in the Sacramento suburb of Loomis, where they found a woman who had suffered injuries, officials said. She declined medical attention.

Deputies arrested Artest on suspicion of domestic violence and using force or violence to prevent the woman from reporting a crime, sheriff’s spokeswoman Dena Erwin said.

“He and the female were in the house and separated,” Erwin said. “The deputies interviewed them and took Mr. Artest into custody.”

Artest, the central figure of the infamous 2004 brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans, was booked into the Placer County Jail and released later on $50,000 bail.

More : washingtonpost.com

Child abuse and other forms of violence involving families fell by more than half between 1993 and 2002, in line with the decline in crime overall, the government said Sunday.

The rate of family violence fell from about 5.4 victims to 2.1 victims per 1,000 residents age 12 and older, according to a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Simple assault was the most frequent type of violent offense. Murder accounted for less than one-half of 1% of all family violence between 1998 and 2002 — the most recent years analyzed for the report.

The report looked back to 1993 — the year the survey was redesigned — for a long-term trend in family violence, but analyzed the most recent years to glean detailed information on patterns of crime.

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Bob Dole ventured into a black, drug-infested neighborhood here today and suggested that domestic violence had been produced by the welfare system, a notion that a local social worker immediately upbraided him for.

Mr. Dole, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, was taking part in a roundtable discussion on battered women and abused children at the Anton Dvorak school in the Southlawn section, three miles southwest of the Loop.

As a county prosecutor in Russell, Kan., more than 50 years ago, Mr. Dole said he “had to take children away from their parents.” He noted that his experience “was a long time ago” but added that the problem was now “magnified, multiplied, whatever the word is.”

At today’s event, with Mr. Dole seated at a table with Gov. Jim Edgar and a dozen people who work with victims of domestic violence, a reporter asked him why domestic violence had become so much worse.

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With her bruises captured in photographs and her fear echoing on a 911 audiotape even after her death, Nicole Brown Simpson has unleashed a wave of support for battered women and firmly anchored domestic violence in the American psyche as a problem that must be dealt with, experts say.

Since O. J. Simpson was arrested last July in the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend Ronald L. Goldman, the number of calls and donations to many battered women’s shelters nationwide has risen, the shelters say.

In addition, women seem to have become more willing to acknowledge that they have been abused at some time in their lives. A survey of 982 people across the country, of which half were women, found that the number of women who said they had been physically abused by a partner at some time jumped from 24 percent in July 1994 to 31 percent last February. The telephone survey, cosponsored by the Family Violence Prevention Fund, had a margin of sampling error of three percentage points.

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