Domestic Violence and Legal Intervention in the United States

Domestic Violence and Legal Intervention in the United States Presented by: Mrs. Ramsey Date: 5 April 2023 Chapter Organization - Chapter 1. Policing Respectable Male Behavior: Non-Fatal Assaults, 1870-1920 - Chapter 2. Domestic Homicide during the Long 19th Century - Chapter 3. The 1920s: Resilient Victorian Values in the Era of the 'New Woman' - Chapter 4. Depression and War: Domestic Violence in Times of Crisis - Chapter 5. Gender Anxiety, the Medicalization of Violence, and the Decline of Paternalism at Mid-Century - Chapter 6. The Battered Women's Movement in the 1970s - Chapter 7. Domestic Violence Law Reform in the 1980s and 1990s - Conclusion Themes - Overview: revision of standard feminist narrative that non-intervention in intimatepartner violence (IPV) was a static feature of the patriarchal state - New periodization • Pendulum swings:  Paternalistic intervention in the family (late 19th early 20th C) ➡ Marital conciliation, medicalization of violence, non-arrest (mid-20th C) ➡ Aggressive arrest & prosecution spurred by feminist leaders (late 1970s- 1990s) • Before the second half of the 20th century, legal intervention in IPV involved the policing of prescriptive norms for men, not the promotion of gender equality. Domestic Violence in the Police Courts, late 19th - early 20th centuries - People v. George Ballard: Battery on wife - Sentence: $50 fine or 50 days in jail People v. Frank Toal (Preliminary Hearing, L. A. City Justice's Court, 1885): assault with intent to murder his wife - "[Mary Ann] Toal is summoned here as a witness and served with process to attend here as a witness on behalf of the People of California. She is not here, prosecuting, but simply as a witness for the People, and she was compelled to attend by process of law." Lack Of Social Safety Net For Abused Women, Late 19th - Early 20th Centuries - Charging men with domestic assaults and murders reinforced hierarchy, rather than improving women's situation. - Narrow focus on criminal punishment of abusive men was ineffective to prevent IPV. Abusers reoffended after being jailed or fined. - Neither state nor society offered structural solutions. • No social safety net to help beaten women navigate the complexity of leaving or repairing a violent relationship • Abuse victims called police to interrupt violence, but many women refused to prosecute. Some were held in contempt of court for doing so. • "Justifiable" domestic homicide was a tacitly accepted form of self-help for women. Acquittal Of Women Charged With Domestic Homicides, Late 19th-Early 20th Centuries: Implicit Recognition Of Abused Women's Entrapment - Not limited to California: Each chapter offers examples from other parts of the United States, including the East Coast, the Midwest, and the Rocky Mountain region. - People v. Mary Cotter (San Francisco, 1892): Self-defense acquittal of woman who killed her police-officer husband What Changed? And When? - "The Roaring 1920s": Revolution in fashion and ratification of 19th Amendment, but... • Response to IPV demonstrated persistence of essentially Victorian values and modes of justice. - 1930s-1940s: Neither the Great Depression nor WWII permanently disrupted the traditional, sex-based division of labor or the dominant ideology supporting it. • IPV by men still resulted in more severe outcomes than female defendants received for similar charges. - Late 1940s-1960s: Socio-legal efforts to promote the Baby Boom "family ideal" despite rise in dual-income marriages, divorce, and anxiety over gender roles • 4 Developments:  Popularization of Woman-Blaming Psychological Theories  The Ideology of Marital Conciliation  The Psychiatric Turn in Criminal Law: Expansion of "Excuse" Defenses o Diminished Capacity ➢ Precluded verdict of deliberate, premeditated 1st-degree murder-Wells- Gorshen rule (firmly established by in CA by 1960). ➢ Could also be found to negate malice manslaughter conviction, instead of any degree of murder-People v. Conley (1966). o Reformed Provocation Doctrine ➢ People v. Valentine (1946): resolved conflicting strands of caselaw to reject traditional categories of adequate provocation ➢ People v. Borchers (1958): introduced concept of "cumulative provocation" o Insanity ➢ ALI test: added volitional incapacity prong to cognitive M'Naghten standard (adopted in many states, but not until 1972 in CA). ➢ Diminished capacity defense compensated for CA's relatively strict insanity test.  Conviction & Imprisonment of Women for Domestic Homicides at Mid-Century o People v. Rose Lucas (San Francisco, 1957): Convicted of voluntary manslaughter after police failed to arrest her physically violent police-officer husband, who threatened to kill her.