NCJ Number
122452
Date Published
1987
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The complexity of wife battering precludes the use of the criminal justice system as a panacea for addressing it.
Abstract
The State's current interest in wife battering may not prove to be in the best interests of the women victims if it involves isolating them in shelters, thrusting them on welfare roles, placing them in ghettos, or forcing them to return to abusive husbands. There is some concern that State intervention is slowly eroding an appreciation of the kinds of comprehensive services and interventions the problem requires. Many victims of wife abuse perceive that the criminal justice system commits them to a dissolution of the marriage and the disintegration of economic security. At the same time, the criminal justice system may not ensure victims protection from a husband enraged by the wife's having called in the police. The victim also loses control of the intervention as the State typically does not include her in case management nor address the multitude of problems occasioned by the husband's prosecution. This may include removing the wife and children from the home to communal settings that rob them of privacy and a familiar environment. A comprehensive approach to wife battering must be developed, with the criminal justice system being but one component for dealing with the complex issues involved.