Criminal Approaches to Family Violence, 1640-1980

Abstract

American efforts to prevent or punish family violence began in New England in the 1640s with the passage of the first laws against family violence. Interest in criminalizing family violence since then has been episodic. There have been periods of American history that included reforms against family violence, including significant efforts to criminalize it; there have been other periods of decriminalization of family violence, and still others when there were significant judicial innovations in the handling of family violence cases without any comparable interest in the subject of domestic abuse. A social atmosphere favorable to the criminalization of family violence results from many factors, the most important of which is that family violence must be defined and perceived not just as a threat to individual victims but also as a danger to the social order. However, among the many reasons for the lack of interest in criminalizing family violence, the most significant is the view that family violence is primarily a domestic matter.