Policing the Police: Law Enforcement and Domestic Violence

This project will try to shed light on how domestic violence is still treated differently from other violent crimes, and how this affects the lives of the abused.

For decades, domestic violence was treated less like a crime and more like a private family matter that would occasionally get loud enough to disturb the neighbors. Although the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 finally established a federal law against domestic violence, in most communities beating one’s partner does seem to elicit more shock and disgust than it used to, the culture can’t change until the way people are punished for the crime changes.

Image by Rusty Frank via Wikimedia Commons

7 Articles

We want to know the policy on officer-involved domestic violence

by Beryl Lipton

August 06, 2020

The circumstances around domestic violence situations can be complicated — even more so when one of those involved is a member of law enforcement. How are police expected to handle it?

Help release records related to police domestic violence

by Caitlin Russell

July 31, 2018

Forty percent of police families deal with domestic violence compared to 25 percent of the general population, and getting out hands on the records that detail these abuses is proving to be expensive. Here’s how you can help.

Wisconsin domestic violence policies put fetus over host freedom

by Caitlin Russell

May 22, 2018

Wisconsin State Patrol policies regarding domestic violence extend the law all the way to the womb, where the unborn children of Wisconsin women may be at risk.

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