I agree with the concerns and thoughts raised concerning training judges, police and other law enforcement officials around domestic violence hoping/planning for better treatment of domestic violence. While this is certainly important, I am also concerned about a couple of issues -- first, what of those forms of domestic violence and abuse that aren't yet (and perhaps should not be) illegal. I see domestic violence as linked to a continuum of behaviors of attitudes that begin with disrespect of women. When men disrespect women in a consistent and patterned way, that is abusive -- regardless of whether or not he breaks a law. If we rely to heavily on the legal aspects, then we lose these forms of abuse that are not only the basis on other more extreme forms of abuse, but are also harmful to women.
Secondly, too much emphasis on the legal aspects keeps domestic violence in the realm of a personal issue. The social change efforts that are necessary to create gender justice are not addressed by better law enforcement. Finally, in the US, there are racial, ethnic, and class discrepancies in how our legal system responds to crimes. By reinforcing the development and strengthening the legal response, I am concerned about how this may be used as a weapon against disenfranchised groups (ie: minimizing the violence against women of color, or increased penalties against men of color compared with European American men). But I am also concerned with the message this sends to communities of color and other disenfranchised groups in the US who re under-represented in the US anti domestic violence movement. I say all this to say that we definitely need to continue to increase our pressure on legal systems to respond better and more adequately to issues of domestic violence (including improved and increased training) but that these efforts need to be attached to additional efforts to address the discrepancies that local and national jurisdictions may experience. AND, these efforts need to be attached to additional efforts that work on changing attitudes and increasing men's involvement in the struggle for gender justice. Rus Funk Washington, DC ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
