Federal and State Legislation
Domestic Violence Legislation at the Federal and State Level
Domestic violence is considered any violent act taken against someone involved in an intimate or family relationship (Eulich, 2013). It is a serious problem with countless victims each year. In 1994, Congress passed the United States Crime Bill which gave power to the federal government to help combat domestic violence, in particular violence against women and children. Specifically, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was created to address this problem which is considered to not only hurt victims, but also damage families, children and society as a whole (Eulich, 2013). The Act mandates that such crimes may be prosecuted by the Department of Justice and that the Gun Control Act (that existed as part of the federal Crime Bill) be extended to include issues related to domestic violence crimes. This VAWA gives the federal government a platform for prosecuting offenders to the fullest extent of the law in certain cases.
The VAWA defines abuse as anything related to personal injury, harassment, intimidation, excessive force, kidnapping, and threats that create a reasonable fear of death. It also covers the subjects of firearms and forced interstate travel. Intimate partners can be a spouse, former spouse, past or present cohabitant or parents of a child in common. It is important to note that girlfriends and boyfriends that have never cohabitated are not included in every instance, however. Immediate family is most often considered spouses, parents, siblings, children, family relations established...
The research indicates that domestic violence has a negative impact on each of these areas. One of the prominent concerns concerning domestic violence is the megative impact that it has on children. According to Stenberg (2006) "In the first decade of research on family violence, many researchers documented that victims of physical child abuse were frequently characterized by behavior problems and psychiatric symptoms…More recently, researchers have also emphasized the risks associated
Law Enforcement Introduction The Modern Police Forces Prior to the formation of the Philadelphia force in 1833, policing primarily consisted of "night watches" and sheriffs recruited from the community (Sabeth). The role of law enforcement was ad hoc in nature to fight crime, night watch patrols, and not an organized or uniform organization. Incidentally, the rural nature of the country did not necessitate an established and robust policing force until the urbanization
Not all physical force can be characterized as violence, and not all violence is created equal. There are numerous controversies regarding definitions of violence and abuse and no clear consensus among researchers on how to characterize acts as one or the other. Presumably, there should be commonalities among different types of violence so that all can be characterized first as violence, and yet some violence is socially approved and so
Moreover, the risks posed by felons with known propensities (or stated intentions) to respond violently to law enforcement apprehension efforts are usually subject to judicially approved no-knock arrest warrants; therefore, they can be excepted from this particular element of analysis. However, a subject who is forewarned of officers' intention to breach his home's entrance by the amount of time required by knock and announce standards presents the worst case scenario
The authors do not state that public perceptions of severity should be discounted, but merely that these should not be over-emphasized, as was the case in previous literature. Another existing mode of measuring crime severity is that of economic models. Economic measures of costs may seem more objective, but given that they also involve speculative losses (such as lost productivity), they are not universally agreed upon. One widely-used model to
Controlling Legislation Role of the Law Enforcement Community The Role of the Law Enforcement Community in Combatting Hate Crimes Hate crimes are a form of domestic terrorism. They send the poisonous message that some Americans deserve to be victimized solely because of who they are. Like other acts of terrorism, hate crimes have an impact far greater than the impact on the individual victims. They are crimes against entire communities, against the whole
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now