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Fighting violence against women: laws, norms & challenges ahead.

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Mala Htun , Francesca R. Jensenius; Fighting Violence Against Women: Laws, Norms & Challenges Ahead. Daedalus 2020; 149 (1): 144–159. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_01779

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In the 1990s and 2000s, pressure from feminist movements and allies succeeded in pushing scores of states to reform their laws to prevent and punish violence against women (VAW). Even in states with progressive legislation, however, activists face challenges to induce citizens to comply with the law, compel state authorities to enforce the law, and ensure the adequate allocation of resources for social support services. In this essay, we take stock of legislative developments related to VAW around the world, with a focus on the variation in approaches toward intimate partner violence and sexual harassment. We analyze efforts to align behavior with progressive legislation, and end with a discussion of the balance activists must strike between fighting VAW aggressively with the carceral and social support dimensions of state power, while exercising some restraint to avoid the potentially counterproductive effects of state action.

Until quite recently, states took little action to combat violence against women ( vaw ), a comprehensive concept encompassing diverse phenomena including rape, intimate partner violence, trafficking, honor killings, and female genital mutilation. In fact, most states endorsed many types of violence, for example through laws stating that sex was a marital obligation, that rapists could escape charges by marrying victims, that parents could marry off their girl children, or that men who murdered adulterous wives were merely “defending honor.” The diverse phenomena we today call vaw was hardly recognized as a crime, let alone as a fundamental question of human rights.

Feminists began to use the vaw concept in the 1960s and 1970s as they probed how women's unequal social position enables sexual and gender violence. In 1993, the global community framed vaw as a question of human rights and as a manifestation of gender subordination in the Vienna Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights. Today, this connection between vaw , human rights, and women's status is well established in international law and global discourses of democratic legitimacy. By signing on to international conventions and agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Vienna Declaration, the Inter-American Convention on Violence against Women, the Maputo Protocol, the Beijing Platform for Action, and the Istanbul Convention, most states have committed to adhere to these norms, at least rhetorically.

In the 1990s and 2000s, pressure from feminist movements and allies succeeded in pushing scores of states to reform their laws to ban violent practices against women and girls. Many states adopted specialized legislation, first to prevent and punish domestic violence, and then later to combat a broader range of violent and harassing practices. Often, however, laws look good on paper but violence and harassment remain common. The major challenge is to align behavior with the letter and spirit of progressive legislation.

In this essay, we take stock of legislative developments around the world and the variation in approaches toward intimate partner violence and sexual harassment. Dozens of states still resist the demands of feminist activists and refuse to conform to international standards on violence against women. However, even in states with progressive legislation, activists face challenges to induce citizens to comply with the law, compel state authorities to enforce the law, and ensure the adequate allocation of resources for social support services. We conclude with a discussion of how activists must strike a balance between fighting vaw aggressively with the carceral and social support dimensions of state power, while exercising restraint to avoid overreaching in ways that produce counterproductive effects, such as the revictimization of women and the violation of other rights.

Sexual and gender violence and harassment are widespread. Worldwide, the World Health Organization ( who ) reports that 35 percent of women have experienced sexual or domestic violence. In Mexico, the endireh survey (National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships) of more than 140,000 households in 2016 found that some 16 percent of women in a relationship had experienced serious physical violence at the hands of their current partner. Over 80 percent of women parliamentarians surveyed in thirty-nine countries say they suffered harassment. In universities in the United States, between 11 percent and 25 percent of women students report experiences of sexual assault. Across the mena region, 40 percent to 60 percent of women say they have been harassed on the street, while 30 percent to 65 percent of men report having perpetrated such acts. 1

The theoretical development of the vaw concept has enabled scholars, activists, and policy-makers around the world to develop policies and analyze behavior related to violence in multiple ways.

First, activists' elaboration of the mechanisms needed to fight vaw , ranging from specialized legislation to support services and administrative coordination, has enabled scholars to operationalize and measure multiple policy changes. We now have access to a large amount of data about efforts to combat vaw . The World Bank's Women, Business, and the Law ( wbl ) data set, which we use in this essay, contains four waves of data from across the world on laws in multiple areas of legislation related to gender and sexual violence. 2 The oecd 's Social Institutions and Gender Index's physical integrity ranking orders countries according to the comprehensiveness of their approach toward intimate partner violence, rape, and sexual harassment. 3 The Womanstats database has scales on the scope and depth of national legislation on domestic violence, rape (including marital rape and date rape), and honor killings, as well as indicators of social practice in all of these areas, up until 2017 and 2018. 4 The Htun-Weldon data set contains four decades of comprehensive data on state approaches to vaw , encompassing domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment legislation, services to victims and vulnerable groups of women, and policies such as training, public awareness campaigns, and administrative coordination. 5

Such data sets make it easier to evaluate governments' approaches to vaw and to assess whether or not a state is attempting seriously to combat the problem. The fact that the data sets disaggregate types of vaw also allows insights into how changes may be taking place in some arenas but not in others. A challenge with these data, however, is that such large, cross-national databases usually do not include information on within-country differences in approaches and implementation, which may be significant in places with pronounced socioeconomic inequalities–driven, for example, by urban-rural divides–or the application of customary or religious laws.

Second, activists' expansion of the vaw concept to include multiple forms of violence has identified the range of behaviors–including not just rape and physical battery, but also stalking, psychological violence, female genital mutilation, harassment, forced pregnancy testing, and more–that need to be measured to assess the prevalence of vaw . However, it is difficult to gather statistics on these experiences. Episodes of violence and harassment are notoriously underreported, which makes official crime and police data a poor reflection of actual behavior. In fact, official data may be misleading, as more women tend to report violence as norms change and they feel more empowered.

Our best estimates of the incidence of vaw thus come from household surveys that probe respondents' experiences. The most sophisticated of these surveys ask about experiences across types of violence and in multiple spheres, such as at home and at work, on the street, with family members and with strangers, in the past year and over the course of a lifetime. Surveys with large sample sizes permit us to get a comprehensive overview of the experiences of differently situated women. Yet there are challenges with such data, too: they are often not comparable across studies and countries due to differences in definitions of violence, questions asked, and survey methodology. Even within the same study, scholars have found “interviewer effects,” with different response patterns according to the gender of the interviewer and whether or not another person is present during the interview.

Finally, activists and scholars have long argued that vaw is attributable not only to individual-level factors such as aggression, alcohol and drug use, or family history, but also to cultural attitudes and social norms that legitimize violent behavior, and above all to the gender structure of society, which tends to subordinate women and render them vulnerable to men's economic and social power. Using opinion surveys and other tools, therefore, we can measure and evaluate social contexts that enable violence and impunity.

Evidence from around the world, for example, demonstrates a strong association between norms and attitudes condoning male authority and endorsing wife beating and the perpetration of violence. Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys ( dhs ) conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development reveals that in thirty Sub-Saharan African countries, a majority of women respondents say that it is acceptable for a man to beat his wife for various reasons, including if she argues with him, refuses to have sex, or burns food. Geographic variation in attitudes closely corresponds to experiences of violence. In Nepal, perceptions that prevailing social norms endorse male dominance, value family honor, and accept violence are related to women's experiences of physical and sexual intimate partner violence. In Mexico, women who say that violence belongs in the family– more than one-quarter of a large national sample–are more likely to be victims of violence, and also less likely to report such incidents. 6

In this essay, our empirical focus is primarily on domestic violence and sexual harassment. These issues do not exhaust the range of the vaw phenomenon, which is far broader, but are arguably the issues that activists have struggled hardest to change beliefs about. It is rare today to find people who defend forms of violence against women such as gang rape, honor killings, and female genital mutilation, though defenders do exist in some places. By contrast, as we mentioned earlier, large numbers of people hold on to attitudes that explicitly or implicitly condone intimate partner violence and sexual harassment.

Even as dysfunctional beliefs persist, feminist activists, often allied with women politicians and human rights movements, have compelled states to take action to combat violence. Progressive vaw laws, especially when adopted by authoritarian and otherwise conservative regimes, are subject to criticism as parchment institutions intended to look good abroad and placate critics at home. Still, even when not fully enforced or implemented, vaw laws uphold aspirational rights that signal consensus and state commitment. By codifying a plan for aggressive state action, the laws lend support and legitimacy to feminist efforts to change social norms and empower women. 7

The World Bank's Women, Business, and the Law data show that most countries have taken some action on domestic violence. 8 The most comprehensive laws specify that domestic violence is a crime, create mechanisms to investigate and punish perpetrators, and offer resources and protection to victims, such as restraining orders, shelters, hotlines, and legal assistance. Many laws also provide training for police, judges, social workers, and health care professionals, as well as social marketing campaigns to change norms and encourage women to report violence and seek help.

According to the wbl data from 2018, a large majority of countries (144 out of the 189 included) have adopted specialized laws on domestic violence. 9 As we can see in Figure 1 , this includes most countries in Europe and in the Americas, as well as a large number of countries in the southern parts of Africa and Asia. A smaller group of countries–Belgium, Canada, Chad, Djibouti, Estonia, Libya, Madagascar, Morocco, and Tunisia–lacks specialized legislation about domestic violence, but includes aggravated penalties in the criminal law for violence against spouses and other family members. A third group of thirty-six countries–mostly in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East–has no legal mechanisms that seriously address domestic violence. 10

Countries with Legislation on Domestic Violence

Domestic violence laws vary in their degree of comprehensiveness, depending on the timing of their adoption and national discourses on violence. For example, Figure 2 shows that almost all countries with domestic violence legislation recognize both physical violence and psychological violence. 11 In addition, many countries acknowledge sexual violence (119 countries, including 82.6 percent of the countries with specialized domestic violence legislation) and economic violence (95 countries, 66 percent of the countries with specialized legislation).

Percentage of National Domestic Violence Laws Recognizing Different Types of Violence

An important part of sexual domestic violence is marital rape. Feminists worldwide have struggled for decades to get the concept of marital rape recognized. Opposition to the marital rape concept derives from two patriarchal principles: that sex is an obligation of marriage and that women must do what their husbands say. Even in contexts in which there is broad agreement that domestic violence is wrong, some social actors reject the idea that nonconsensual sex in marriage is rape. In discussions over a violence against women law in Myanmar in the 2010s, for example, multiple groups reportedly opposed criminalizing marital rape, including women officials from the National Committee for Women's Affairs. 12

Marital rape is a widespread problem: in the United Kingdom, for instance, the National Health Service estimates that about 45 percent of all rape is committed by current partners. In a survey of 9,200 Indian men conducted by United Nations Population Fund, about one-third of the respondents said they had forced a sexual act on their wives. Without laws that explicitly criminalize marital rape, the practice is subject to legal interpretation and contestation, and it is easier for people to continue thinking it is not a serious crime. In Norway, for example, the criminal code does not explicitly mention marital rape, and, historically, rape within a marriage was not considered a crime. In fact, it was not until 1974 that a man was condemned for raping his wife. 13

Figure 3 shows that some seventy-eight of the 189 countries (41 percent) in the wbl dataset have legislation that explicitly criminalizes marital rape, including Australia, Canada, France, and Sweden, as well as most of the countries in Latin and Central America and some countries in the southern part of Africa. In another seventy-seven countries (41 percent) – including the United States, most European countries, as well as a large share of the countries in Africa and Asia – a woman can file criminal charges against her husband in the case of marital rape.

Countries that Criminalize Marital Rape

In the remaining thirty-four countries (18 percent) – mostly in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia – married women have no legal protection against marital rape and social actors continue to contest the concept. In India, for example, the 1860 Penal Code states explicitly that sexual coercion in marriage does not amount to rape. In 2013, parliament reformed the law to criminalize marital rape, but only if the wife is under fifteen years old. Then, the Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that it is unconstitutional to permit the marital rape of minors between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, thereby enabling wives younger than eighteen to allege marital rape. In 2018, a justice in the Gujarat High Court ruled that a man who had repeatedly raped his wife was guilty of sexual harassment and spousal cruelty, but not rape due to the spousal exception. In a move heralded by activists, the justice called for the nationwide criminalization of marital rape regardless of age.

A different, though related, topic is whether countries exempt rapists from criminal penalties if they marry their victims. Though most societies have reformed laws to remove these marriage provisions, a stubborn group has not, including Angola, Bahrain, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, the Philippines, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, and the West Bank and Gaza.

Another major issue on the agenda for women's rights activists is sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual coercion, unwanted sexual advances, and gender harassment. In the past few decades, feminist demands have compelled states to take action against sexual harassment in the workplace, schools, public institutions, and common spaces.

Some countries, such as the United States, expanded legal understandings of sex discrimination to encompass sexual harassment. Many European countries broadened labor protections to cover sexual coercion, gender harassment, and bullying in the workplace. In yet other contexts, laws intended to combat gender and sexual violence incorporated harassing behavior. For example, Mexico's 2007 federal law, which guarantees women a “life free from violence,” purports to combat various forms of violence including psychological, physical, economic, patrimonial, sexual, and other violence intended to “harm women's dignity, integrity, or liberty.” 14

Figure 4 identifies the 154 countries in the world that have adopted legislation against some form of sexual harassment as of 2018. 15 Only a minority of countries lacks any legislation, including large countries such as Russia, Japan, and Indonesia, as well as several countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Angola, Liberia, and Saudi Arabia.

Countries that Have Legislation on Sexual Harassment

However, laws vary considerably in the domains they apply to (see Figure 5 ). In 130 countries (84.4 percent), sexual harassment legislation covers harassment in employment, though criminal penalties are stipulated in only seventy-nine of these countries. In sixty-six countries (42.9 percent), sexual harassment legislation addresses educational contexts. In only thirty-two countries (20.8 percent) does the law cover sexual harassment in public spaces.

Percentage of Sexual Harassment Laws Addressing Different Types of Harassment

Even when the law does not explicitly address a particular form of sexual harassment, it may still be possible to challenge harassing behavior in court. As in the case of domestic violence discussed earlier, however, the failure explicitly to typify proscribed behaviors may make it harder to get authorities, peers, colleagues, and family members to take women's grievances seriously and to respond appropriately. Gender harassment, for example, tends to be far more pervasive than sexualized advances and sexual coercion in U.S. workplaces, and frequently just as detrimental to women's health, their careers, and organizational climates. Yet gender harassment often skirts below the legal radar, and some evidence suggests that gender harassment, but not other forms of sexual harassment, has increased since the #MeToo movement. 16

The existence of laws criminalizing domestic violence and sexual harassment does not mean that people comply or that state authorities enforce them. The letter of the law in many places is far more progressive than social norms and individual attitudes, which implies that behavioral alignment with the law is a primary challenge facing vaw activists today.

As we mentioned earlier, studies show that the problem of violence against women persists across social groups and contexts, even in countries where laws combatting vaw are decades old. What is more, only a small share of women who experience violence or harassment report this to the authorities. Analysis of dhs surveys in twenty-four countries finds that the average share of women victims who report gender-based violence to public institutions is 7 percent, though a larger share (40 percent) say they spoke with family or friends about their experiences. 17

Reluctance to report is attributable partially to attitudes that see violence as normal, common, and a private or family matter. Underreporting may also be strategic, as women choose to avoid emotional, financial, and personal risks associated with police intervention and legal proceedings. Women who report incur costs, including disbelief and demeaning treatment by the authorities, retaliation, and ostracism by family and community. Forty-five percent of the approximately ninety thousand charges of discrimination made to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2015 included a complaint of retaliation (and those are the reported incidents!). 18

High attrition rates for vaw cases increase reporting risks faced by women. Across much of the world, legal authorities end up prosecuting very few allegations of domestic and sexual violence. Women often drop charges. In the rare event that a case of rape or domestic violence goes to court, judges and prosecutors often question victims about their morality and sexual practices. Convictions are rare. In fact, in most European countries, reporting rates have increased, but conviction rates have actually fallen. 19

Governments, international organizations, and civil society groups around the world have adopted a range of interventions to change social norms, make it easier and safer for victims to report, and encourage bystanders to intervene to stop violence. Many groups focus on social norms marketing via the mass media, which are less costly and easier to implement than improvements in government services and infrastructure or person-to-person training. A large campaign in Uganda, for example, involves showing videos depicting the consequences of intimate partner violence and modeling bystander interventions during village film festivals. Follow-up studies find that, among people who had seen the videos, there was a greater tendency to report abuse and some reduction in experiences of violence, even as attitudes endorsing violence did not change. 20

Every normative intervention, however, runs the risk of producing unintended consequences. For example, it is common for gender violence campaigns to emphasize the prevalence of violations – for example, with billboards stating that half of women are victims of intimate partner violence – in order to elicit outrage and mobilize a commitment to change. Yet social psychologists' research implies that such campaigns may promote complicity with existing trends by increasing people's awareness of what is actually typical in their community. 21

In the United States, a vast majority of companies and universities require that workers and students participate in trainings intended to prevent sexual misconduct. Trainings typically cover federal law, organizational policies, and reporting procedures; many also seek to communicate principles of equality and affirmative consent. Yet a growing body of evidence has shown that training, though well intentioned, frequently backfires. Studies show that some men have adverse reactions to training, growing more extreme in sexist views and in their proclivity to harass; that people's embrace of traditional gender stereotypes increases; and that women say they are less likely to report assault. In U.S. corporations, employee training programs have led to fewer women rising to management ranks. 22

More effective interventions against sexual assault and harassment involve leaders and influential social referents as change agents. Programs aiming to alter community norms and empower bystanders to intervene to stop assault and harassment have produced good results. Bystander intervention training, for example, has been linked to behavioral and attitudinal changes as well as a reduction in rates of assault on college campuses and in the U.S. military. 23

A key remaining challenge for women's rights activists and their supporters, particularly in the Global North where wide consensus exists about the most serious forms of vaw , is to find the right balance between using and restraining state power. Almost everyone wants violence and harassment to be taken more seriously, and we are far from a situation in which prisons are packed with rapists and harassers. Yet there is a risk that campaigns against sexual misconduct may strengthen the carceral state, produce unintended consequences such as reduced reporting and exclusion of women, and infringe on other important rights.

How hard should society punish acts of violence against women? Some studies show that tougher sentences and longer prison terms help to deter serial perpetrators, but many activists object to using the criminal justice system and mechanisms of policing, prosecution, and incarceration to fight gender and sexual violence. So-called carceral feminism and its instruments, such as mandatory arrest laws, may empower law enforcement authorities at the expense of individual women, particularly intersectionally disadvantaged groups of women. As a result, women may be more likely to suffer revictimization by police and prosecutors, and minority communities may experience biased treatment. In addition, carceral feminism runs the risk of diverting attention from structural conditions conducive to gender violence, such as social inequalities and the concentration of economic and political power in men's hands. 24

A related issue is how expansively violence, assault, and harassment should be defined. It is crucial to recognize the multiple ways that women are violated and to enforce legislation that punishes serious crimes. But many human encounters are ambiguous. Laws that draw clear lines in these gray areas, and that authorize official scrutiny of intimate relations, may lead to unintended results.

For example, laws in several U.S. states, and policies in many hundreds of universities and colleges, apply the “affirmative consent” standard to define sexual assault. All participants in a sexual interaction must explicitly express their consent at each stage, or one or more have assaulted the other(s). In order to clarify misunderstandings, the standard classifies a great deal of behavior as assault, with potentially severe penalties for the perpetrator. Critics, including prominent feminists and legal scholars, have raised concerns that the affirmative consent standard is unenforceable, violates the presumption of innocence and due process rights of the accused, and fails to address the underlying causes of assault, which include gender hierarchies pervading the “hookup culture.” 25 Our own field experiments on the effects of mandatory sexual misconduct training on a university campus suggest that emphasizing affirmative consent may make women less likely to report an incident of sexual harassment or assault. 26

Enhanced surveillance of everyday behavior for patterns of sexual misconduct may lead some men simply to avoid interactions with women. Recent U.S. surveys show that around half of male managers are afraid to work with women colleagues, and that the number afraid to mentor women has tripled since the rise of the #MeToo movement. Afraid that casual comments and jokes will be misconstrued as harassment, more men endorse the “Mike Pence rule” of not having dinner with any woman except their own wife. 27 As a result, more women may end up excluded from professional networks.

Ultimately, the broad characterization of vaw has advantages and disadvantages. We have a more precise understanding of the range of phenomena that harm women's dignity and limit their opportunities. But such an enhanced understanding does not imply that we are able to engineer precise interventions. Our legal categories and policy tools are still too blunt to eliminate vaw from the top down. Individual women and local communities, when they have access to resources and bargaining power, may be able to more consistently impose costs to deter perpetrators and generate new norms than the criminal justice hand of the state.

Many states have made dramatic progress to combat violence against women, at least on paper. Some countries remain stubborn, refusing to recognize the possibility of marital rape, sexual harassment, or resisting a comprehensive approach to domestic violence. Even in countries with progressive legislation, law-practice gaps remain. As some powerful men go down on allegations of harassment, millions of ordinary women endure it. Yet to a much greater extent than in the past, society is mobilized against extreme forms of violence and the problem of impunity, and international organizations and civil society groups test interventions to change social norms and attitudes, encourage reporting, and reduce perpetration.

Global efforts to end vaw are impressive and important. The ongoing challenge, particularly in the Global North, is to strike a good balance between aggressive state action against violent behavior and state restraint to enable the unfolding of social processes that generate legitimate norms and empower women. The state enforces right and wrong, but many states are weak and state actors have conflicting motives. Even strong states cannot engineer social change completely. State-sponsored projects have the potential to produce unintended and unfortunate consequences, such as reducing women's autonomy.

Combating violence requires attention to beliefs and norms and above all to power asymmetries that render women vulnerable to abuse. Women need a firm structural foundation – resources, land, jobs, social support – to contest, and to exit from, violence and harassment in their daily lives. Many studies show that women with access to resources are better able to leave abusers and bargain for more equitable treatment in marriage. Reforming discriminatory family laws that subordinate women to male guardians, and limit their ability to work, manage, and inherit property, will contribute to reducing violence. Social policies that alleviate the financial penalties of divorce and single motherhood, combat discrimination in the workplace, and enable women to combine mothering and wage work are also essential. 28 Empowered women are the key to ending gender and sexual violence.

This research was conducted with support from the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program and the Norwegian Research Council (project number 250753). Replication data and code can be accessed at www.francesca.no .

World Health Organization, “Violence Against Women,” November 29, 2017, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women ; Mala Htun and Francesca R. Jensenius, “Aspirational Laws as Weak Institutions: Legislation to Combat Violence Against Women in Mexico,” in Understanding Institutional Weakness: Power and Design in Latin American Institutions , ed. Daniel M. Brinks, Steven Levitsky, and Maria Victoria Murillo (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019); un Women, “Facts and Figures: Ending Violence Against Women,” https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures ; and Leila Wood, Caitlin Sulley, Matt Kammer-Kerwick, et al., “Climate Surveys: An Inventory of Understanding Sexual Assault and Other Crimes of Interpersonal Violence at Institutions of Higher Education,” Violence Against Women 23 (10) (2017): 1249–1267.

World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law 2018 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2018).

See The oecd Development Centre, Social Institutions and Gender Index, https://www.genderindex.org/ .

WomanStats, https://www.womanstats.org .

Mala Htun and S. Laurel Weldon, States and the Logics of Gender Justice: State Action on Women's Rights around the World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Lori L. Heise and Andreas Kotsadam, “Cross-National and Multilevel Correlates of Partner Violence: An Analysis of Data from Population-Based Surveys,” The Lancet Global Health 3 (6) (2015): e332-e340; Sara Cools and Andreas Kotsadam, “Resources and Intimate Partner Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa,” World Development 95 (2017): 211–230; Cari Jo Clarka, Gemma Ferguson, Binita Shrestha, et al., “Social Norms and Women's Risk of Intimate Partner Violence in Nepal,” Social Science & Medicine 202 (2018): 162–169; and Htun and Jensenius, “Aspirational Laws as Weak Institutions.”

World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law 2018 .

Their data cover “economies” rather than countries. This includes mostly internationally recognized countries, but also some contested areas, such as the West Bank, Gaza, and Hong Kong.

Some of the thirty-six countries may have laws that recognize violence, but that lack sanctions or protective measures. World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law 2018 , 56.

Physical violence includes punching, slapping, hitting, biting, kicking, pulling hair, burning, and strangling. See Domestic Violence London, “Physical Abuse,” https://www.domesticviolencelondon.nhs.uk/1-what-is-domestic-violence-/4-physical-abuse.html . The Council of Europe's Istanbul Convention defines psychological violence as “intentional conduct that seriously impairs another person's psychological integrity through coercion or threats.” See Council of Europe, Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence and Explanatory Report to the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul: Council of Europe, 2011).

Amy Barrow, “Contested Spaces during Transition: Regime Change in Myanmar and Its Implications for Women,” Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender 22 (75) (2015).

Domestic Violence London, “Sexual Abuse,” https://www.domesticviolencelondon.nhs.uk/1-what-is-domestic-violence-/5-sexual-abuse.html ; Dominique Mosbergen, “India's Marital Rape Crisis Reaches ‘Tragic Proportions,'” HuffPost , November 24, 2015, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/india-marital-rape_us_564d8c21e4b00b7997f9469e ; and Minerva, “Voldtektslovgivningen må endres,” https://www.minervanett.no/voldtektslovgivningen-ma-endres/ .

Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, The General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence (Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a un Vida Libre de Violencia) (Mexico City: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, 2007), art. 6.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2018); Lilia M. Cortina and Jennifer L. Berdahl, “Sexual Harassment in Organizations: A Decade of Research in Review,” in The sage Handbook of Organizational Behavior , ed. Julian Barling and Cary L. Cooper, vol. 1 (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: sage Publishing, 2008), 469–497; Emily A. Leskinen and Lilia M. Cortina. “Dimensions of Disrespect: Mapping and Measuring Gender Harassment in Organizations,” Psychology of Women Quarterly 38 (1) (2014): 107–123; and Ksenia Keplinger, Stefanie K. Johnson, Jessica F. Kirk, and Liza Y. Barnes, “Women at Work: Changes in Sexual Harassment between September 2016 and September 2018,” PLOS One 14 (7) (2019).

Tia Palermo, Jennifer Bleck, and Amber Peterman, “Tip of the Iceberg: Reporting and Gender-Based Violence in Developing Countries,” American Journal of Epidemiology 179 (5) (2013): 602–612;.

Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, “Why Diversity Programs Fail,” Harvard Business Review 94 (7–8) (2016): 56.

For example, see Sonia M. Frías, “Resisting Patriarchy within the State: Advocacy and Family Violence in Mexico,” Women's Studies International Forum 33 (6) (2010): 542–551; and Jo Lovett and Liz Kelly, Different Systems, Similar Outcomes? Tracking Attrition in Reported Rape Cases across Europe (London: Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University, 2009).

Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Laurie Ball, Chloe Poynton, and Sarah Sieloff, Social Norms Marketing Aimed at Gender Based Violence: A Literature Review and Critical Assessment (New York: International Rescue Committee, 2010); and Donald P. Green, Anna Wilke, and Jasper Cooper, “Silence Begets Violence: A Mass Media Experiment to Prevent Violence Against Women in Rural Uganda,” working paper (2019), https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/GreenWilkeCooper2019.pdf .

Margaret E. Tankard and Elizabeth Levy Paluck, “Norm Perception as a Vehicle for Social Change,” Social Issues and Policy Review 10 (1) (2016): 181–211; and Paluck et al., Social Norms Marketing Aimed at Gender Based Violence .

Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, “The Promise and Peril of Sexual Harassment Programs,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 (25) (2019): 12255–12260; Justine E. Tinkler, “How Do Sexual Harassment Policies Shape Gender Beliefs? An Exploration of the Moderating Effects of Norm Adherence and Gender,” Social Science Research 42 (5) (2013): 1269–1283; and Mala Htun, Carlos Contreras, Melanie Sayuri Dominguez, et al., “Effects of Mandatory Sexual Misconduct Training on College Campuses,” paper presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, August 30 – September 2, 2018.

Alison C. Cares, Victoria L. Banyard, Mary M. Moynihan, et al., “Changing Attitudes about Being a Bystander to Violence: Translating an In-Person Sexual Violence Prevention Program to a New Campus,” Violence Against Women 21 (2) (2015): 165–187; Sharyn J. Potter and Mary M. Moynihan, “Bringing in the Bystander In-Person Prevention Program to a U.S. Military Installation: Results from a Pilot Study,” Military Medicine 176 (8) (2011): 870–875; and Dobbin and Kalev, “The Promise and Peril of Sexual Harassment Programs.”

Leigh Goodmark, A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence and the Legal System (New York: nyu Press, 2013); Alesha Durfee, “Situational Ambiguity and Gendered Patterns of Arrest for Intimate Partner Violence,” Violence Against Women 18 (1) (2012): 64–84; and Elizabeth Bernstein, “Militarized Humanitarianism Meets Carceral Feminism: The Politics of Sex, Rights, and Freedom in Contemporary Antitrafficking Campaigns,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 36 (1) (2010): 45–71;.

See, for example, the multiple contributions to the “In Theory” symposium in The Washington Post , beginning with Christine Emba, “Affirmative Consent: A Primer,” The Washington Post , October 12, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/10/12/affirmative-consent-a-primer/?utm_term=.a4fda178706e .

Htun et al., “Effects of Mandatory Sexual Misconduct Training on College Campuses.”

Lean In, “Working Relationships in the #MeToo Era: Key Findings,” http://leanin.org/sexual-harassment-backlash-survey-results (accessed October 28, 2019).

Pradeep Panda and Bina Agarwal, “Marital Violence, Human Development and Women's Property Status in India,” World Development 33 (5) (2005): 823–850; Torben Iversen and Frances Rosenbluth, “The Political Economy of Gender: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gender Division of Labor and the Gender Voting Gap,” American Journal of Political Science 50 (1) (2006): 1–19; Mala Htun, Francesca R. Jensenius, and Jami Nelson-Nuñez, “Gender-Discriminatory Laws and Women's Economic Agency,” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 26 (2) (2019): 193–222; and Heise and Kotsadam, “Cross-National and Multilevel Correlates of Partner Violence.”

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Chapter 4 Outline answers to essay questions

Is the range of possible legal responses to domestic abuse sufficient to protect victims?

Domestic abuse goes beyond physical abuse and can include psychological, emotional, sexual, financial and emotional abuse. Domestic abuse can affect adults in all types of relationship and can also include violence between parents and children. 

Explain the legal response to domestic violence, including: 

• Non-molestation and Occupation orders under the Family Law Act 1996
• Injunctions under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997
• Domestic Violence Protection Notices and Orders under s24-33 of the Police & Security Act 2010
• Injunctions under the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007

Criminal Law

• Offences of violence under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861
• Public order offences under the Public Order Act 1986
• Offences of harassment under the 1997 Act (and amendments to cover stalking made by the Protection of Freedom Act 2012
• Offence of coercive and controlling behaviour under s76 Serious Crime Act 2015
• Offence of forced marriage under s121 Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (and breach under s120 ).

Given the breadth of conduct included in the Home Office definition of domestic violence, do you think that the legal response is adequate? There are lots of things you could comment on, for example:

• Is there enough variety in the available remedies? For example, do these remedies work in the same way for violence between adults and violence by a parent against a child?
• What do you think about the use of criminal law? Might some people be against reporting their parent or partner to the police? Should it be up to the victim to decide?
• Do civil remedies protect the right people? Consider Helen Reece's arguments in ‘The End of Domestic Violence’ (2006) 99(5) MLR 770.
• Occupation orders may involve removing someone from their home. In some cases the person with the benefit of an occupation order may not otherwise have been able to occupy the property.
• Does the new offence of coercive control better capture the nature of domestic abuse?
• Consider Choudry and Herring’s article about whether criminal law is the appropriate way to deal with domestic abuse in ‘In Practice: Prosecuting Domestic Violence’ [2008] Fam Law

It is also worth considering that the criteria for claiming legal aid are very restrictive and that many victims of domestic violence would not meet them.

Conclude with your assessment of the current law and, if you think that the law should be reformed, explain how it should be reformed.

Select your Country

Domestic Violence: Reason, Forms and Measures Essay

Introduction, problem statement, literature review, forms and causes of domestic violence.

Domestic or family violence involves abusive behavior patterns that individuals go through in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence takes place in families where parents may abuse their children or in marriages where one spouse abuses the other.

The term domestic violence is defined by American Medical Association Diagnostic and Treatment Guidelines on Domestic Violence (AMADTGDV) as the state, in which powerful individuals in an intimate relationship dominate, misuse their power and victimize the less powerful.

Some of the factors that maintain power differences include differences in financial positions, age differences and state of health. Powerful people use their position to intimidate and control the less fortunate people. According to Buzawa and Buzawa (2003), some people go the extent of using physical violence.

Although all people can experience domestic violence, the most affected are women. Husbands and boyfriends in a relationship are the main perpetrators of violence while girl friends and women end up being the victims. Violence against women is a major problem all over the world in the present days.

This is because the number of women abused and misused by their husbands increases from day to day. Men act as victims of domestic violence in other cases. For instance, in homosexual relationships, powerful men victimize their fellow men.

Domestic violence is a major problem that many people overlook and term as a family issue. Its impacts can however be much more than people may think. Domestic violence has major impacts to families and societies. The main aim of this paper is to determine the reason behind the rapid increase of domestic violence, forms of domestic violence and measures that should be taken to reduce its effects (Aron, Aron & Coups, 2011).

Domestic violence is an important topic that should be clearly understood by people. The topic is very important because many problems arising in modern societies are because of domestic violence. Women, children and the whole society feel the effects of domestic violence.

This makes it a society’s matter of concern. Domestic violence against children is common in many societies. For instance, in the United States of America, it is estimated that more than three million children experience domestic violence sometime during their life. Studies have shown that domestic violence affects the physical, mental and psychological development of children.

Children exposed to traumatic experience become depressed in life. It is important for parents to measure the kind of punishments that they administer to their children when they do something wrong. This is because some of the punishments may be more of mistreatments than punishments for instance making children go without food (Buzawa &Buzawa, 2003).

Other children are abused sexually by their parents. Rape cases between parents and children are common. In many societies, incest taboo is observed where closely related people should not engage in sexual affairs in addition to this, transmission of sexually transmitted diseases becomes common. Incest reduces the respect between parents and their children.

When parents disagree between each other, children are greatly affected. Shipway (2004) points out that when parents divorce, children lack full parental care because they are left in the care of one parent. He further asserts that they may also lack full financial support that contributes to termination of important activities like education.

Injuries resulting from domestic violence affect the health of people. Wife battering is very common in many marriages where husbands beat and hit their wives. Use of physical power leads to head injuries, broken bones and internal bleeding. Some injuries are severe to the extend that they may need medical attendance.

There are cases in which some husbands beat up their wives to the extend they become disabled even after recovery or they die in the process. Pregnant mothers experiencing domestic violence are at greater risks of having miscarriages or giving birth before the fetus is mature enough. Arthritis, ulcers and pelvic pain are some of the health conditions associated with exposure to domestic violence (Shipway, 2004).

Victims living with perpetrators suffer psychologically because of stress, anxiety and fear. The victims are depressed because of the challenges facing them. Exposure to psychological stress increases the risks of the victim committing suicide during the relationship or even after terminating it.

Anxiety and panic is especially common to women whose husbands abuse them physically. They are confused a condition, which makes most of them loose, focuses. Financial problems arise out of domestic violence. There are some cases in which the husband decides not to cater for the needs of the family.

In this case, children and their mothers suffer from financial problems. If the wife does not have income of her own, then the problem is more severe. Being the head of families, some men take it as their duty to budget for all income in the family including the salary of their wives.

Some make sure that women remain with little of their own money. In cases of divorce, women find it hard to take good care of their families financially. Effects of domestic violence are therefore severe and this is why studying the topic is important. Knowledge of effects of domestic violence in families will help in reducing it (Shipway, 2004).

Violence against women and girls is a worldwide problem affecting physical, social, psychological and economic lives of women. The practice makes women not to exercise their rights and freedoms by making them inferior to men.

All countries experience the problems of violence against women but the degree varies from one society to another. Some of the groups that are vulnerable to violence include the minority groups, indigenous people, refugees and migrant women, disabled women, elderly women and children.

Cultural factors requiring women to be submissive to men encourage the practice. It is very hard to come up with reliable information but studies indicate that 20 to 50% of the total population of women in all countries experience violence from a family member or their companions (Summers, 2002).

According to Summers (2002), studies of domestic violence all over the world show that out of three women, one of them has been beaten up by their husbands, forced into sex or any other form of mistreatment sometime in her life. More than 324 000 expectant mothers are mistreated by their husbands during their pregnancy.

It is the main cause of injuries among women aged between the ages of 15 and 44 in the United States of America and other countries. This is mainly because of increase in wife battering. For students in high schools, it is estimated that for every five girls one of them experience sexual and physical abuse from their partners.

They are forced into having sex or doing it without protection and sometimes bitten when they conflict with each other. Studies have also shown that out of four raped women, their companions committed the crime. Domestic violence is a major cause of homelessness.

A study of 46 cities conducted by Conference of Mayors in the United States of America confirmed wife battering as a cause of homelessness. In addition, a study done by the Ford Foundation found that half of homeless women and children were running way from abuse. Instead of maintaining a stressful marriage, many women decide to run away from homes to search for peace from elsewhere (Summers, 2002).

Rape cases are very high in the United States of America. The number of rape cases goes as high as 683000 per year. This means that at least one woman is raped in every minute. Even though rape cases are high, some of them go unreported. Usually, people well known to the victim do perpetration of rape.

Disabled women are at a higher risk of experiencing abuse than non-disabled ones. Crime cases against disabled people are likely to go unreported than with normal human beings. This may be because of difficulties in communication, physical and social discrimination of the disabled and ignorance of the system of justice.

In addition, the victim may fail to report because it will be a shame to them, the offender may be their primary caregivers and therefore fear that they will be neglected or abused by family members. The disabled are vulnerable to victimization because they cannot run away easily or fight against their enemy. 83% of disabled women and 32% of men are at a high-risk sexual harassment. Increase in rape cases puts people at high risk of unwanted pregnancies and transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (Summers, 2002).

Summers (2002) argue that physical abuse involves body contact aimed at causing pain, intimidation or harm to the body. It involves punching, slapping, choking, pushing and hitting. Physical abuse also involves preventing lack of enough sleep and medical care.

When an individual inflicts injury on children or pets with the aim of harming the victim, this is physical abuse. Forcing people into sexual matters out of their will is sexual abuse. Cases of rape are common even among married couples.

Psychological abuse occurs when an individual does something with the aim of embarrassing the other. Discrimination causes psychological stress. Insults and threatening partners that they will die if they leave the relationship is emotional abuse.

Domestic violence is caused by a number of factors that vary from one person to another. Consumption of drugs and alcohol are main causes of domestic violence. Studies have shown that drunkard men are likely to beat their wives than non-drunkard ones.

External stress like from work places may lead to domestic violence. Some men transfer work issues to their wives. Failures to meet financial requirements, disruption of families are other causes of violence in families (Cefrey, 2008).

Getting accurate information is very difficult because not all cases of domestic violence. Some women decide to keep the problem to themselves or others fear that if they report, their husbands will divorce them (Cefrey, 2008).

In addition, the respondents may give invalid information to researchers or hide some information. The researcher can be bias so that he manipulates information given by respondent. He can also fail to note down some information provided to him during research. It is therefore difficult to get reliable data.

Violence against women has decreased in the modern world compared to the olden days. This is because wife battering which was allowed by some cultures is now a crime punishable like other crimes. The governments in all countries take strict measures against husbands found abusing their wives either financially, physically or emotionally.

Education for girl child has reduced instances of violence against women. Education has narrowed down the gap that existed between the boy child and the girl child. They work in the same places and earn equal salaries making them equal.

Girls have also known their rights and cannot allow men to interfere with them otherwise; they can take strict measures against them. Through education, men have been enlightened on the major roles that women play in the society. Large numbers of men now appreciate their wives. It is clear that violence has reduced greatly and people look forward to a generation that will be free from domestic violence (Soileau, 2008).

• Domestic violence influences the society negatively by causing:
• Difficulties in life
• High rates of divorce
• Deaths through injuries

Women and girls lead difficult lives because of exposure to domestic violence. Girls are forced to drop out of schools because of pregnancies arising from rape cases. Others conduct sexually transmitted diseases. Women lead stressful lives because their husbands are not willing to cooperate with them.

The belief that they should be submissive to men is a disadvantage to women because they cannot engage in decision-making. Men think that women cannot make sound decisions and therefore take control over everything in the household.

Women do not have say also on sexual matters. Deaths and injuries caused by intimate persons are common among women. Many pregnant mothers miscarry their babies because of exposure to stressful conditions. Other men beat their wives to the extend that they need medical attention.

Finally, divorce and homelessness are caused by domestic violence. Many families have broken up if one partner is abusing the other. Women leave their homes to search for peace in other areas like towns. Domestic violence has negative impacts to the well being of families as well as development of the society (Renzetti & Bergen, 2005).

Domestic violence is abusive behavior that an individual goes through in a intimate relationship. The main victims of domestic violence are women even though homosexual relationships put men at a risk of becoming a victim.

Violence against women should be avoided because its effects are severe. Domestic violence increases mortality rate of many countries by causing deaths of wives, children and unborn babies. Other victims commit suicide because of psychological and emotional stress.

Violence against women is linked to occurrence of certain diseases like ulcers that cause death if untreated. Since domestic violence is a global matter of concern, necessary measures should be taken to ensure that it is completely eradicated in all societies.

This can be achieved by taking strict measures against spouses found mistreating their partners and children. Living in a domestic violence free area will improve the standards of living of wives (Shipway, 2004).

Aron, A., Aron, E. & Coups, E. (2011). Statistics for the behavioral and social sciences: A brief course . New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall.

Buzawa, C. & Buzawa, E. (2003). Domestic violence: The criminal justice response . New York, NY: Sage.

Cefrey, H. (2008). Domestic violence . Washington, DC: The Rosen Publishing Group.

Renzetti, C. & Bergen, R. (2005). Violence against women . New Jersey, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield.

Shipway, L. (2004). Domestic violence: A handbook for health professionals . New York, NY: Routledge.

Soileau, M. (2008 ). Domestic violence: The forgotten victims . New York, NY: Xulon Press.

Summers, R. (2002). Domestic violence: A global view . London: Greenwood Publishing Group.

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What Defines Domestic Abuse? Survivors Say It’s More Than Assault

The Congresswoman Cori Bush and the musician FKA twigs describe how manipulative, isolating conduct known as “coercive control” helped trap them in abusive relationships. Lawmakers are starting to listen.

By Melena Ryzik and Katie Benner

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It was, at first, the kind of dreamily romantic attention that Cori Bush craved. She was 19 or so, barely making ends meet working at a preschool, and a new boyfriend was spooning on affection. He lavished her with gifts, too. “He would spoil me, he would spoil my friends, my sister — whoever was near me,” she said.

But quickly, she said, the high-watt beam of his attentiveness became an unyielding glare. He monopolized her time and curbed her independence.

“He would answer my phone,” Ms. Bush said. “I thought it was cute at first — he wanted to answer my phone and talk to my friends. But then it turned into him screening my calls.”

When she tried to end things, he hit her, she said. It was the first of many instances in which he was physically violent. “He would pinch me so hard, he would take off not only skin, but flesh,” she said. “He would cut me with knives, box cutters.” She couldn’t leave, she said, because he threatened to turn the weapons on himself. And then the cycle began anew: “He would come back so sweet and so kind and so loving — and so sorry,” she said.

Days into her freshman term as a Democratic Congresswoman from Missouri, Ms. Bush, 44, emerged as a public force ; as her first action, she introduced legislation to investigate and expel members of Congress who voted to overturn the election and supported the riot in the Capitol.

But even before she was sworn in, she shared her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse , in hopes of reframing the issue. “I’ve allowed myself to be vulnerable about it,” she said in an interview last month, “because I feel like if we don’t normalize the conversation — people are still being hurt, especially right now, with Covid, and the lockdown,” when calls to support networks are spiking .

Ms. Bush’s candor comes as some state lawmakers, working with researchers, have begun to reshape the law to acknowledge that the controlling and isolating behaviors she cites, often referred to as “coercive control,” are not only steppingstones to violence, but can be criminally abusive in their own right. Activists hope that by broadening the definition of abuse, they can help victims reclaim their autonomy, and catch perpetrators before cases spiral toward hospitalization — or worse.

In September, California passed a law that allows coercive control behaviors, such as isolating partners, to be introduced as evidence of domestic violence in family court. That month, Hawaii became the first state to enact anti-coercive control legislation. The New York and Connecticut legislatures introduced similar laws.

The efforts address what experts say is a common, long-held misperception that an abusive situation is only a partner throwing a punch, rather than an incremental constricting of someone’s life, to dominate them.

“By the time you see a broken bone, the person has experienced a lot of other damaging behaviors,” said Lynn Rosenthal, who was the first White House adviser on violence against women and served on the Biden transition team.

Of course the violence itself has not abated. In the United States, one in four women and one in seven men experience severe violence in their relationships in their lifetimes, and it’s the leading cause of homicides for women, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline .

But as gender-based inequities surfaced in the wake of the #MeToo movement, and more women — and therefore more survivors — entered government, they and others have been vocal about how much more complicated the calculus of abuse can be, how yawning the gaps in protection and how damaging the belief that victims can just leave.

Though they may suffer injuries, many survivors say that what keeps them in the relationship, and what makes the trauma last, is mental and emotional abuse. The musician FKA twigs, 33, who filed a lawsuit last month accusing her former boyfriend, the actor Shia LaBeouf, of sexual battery, assault and inflicting emotional distress, said in the suit that his constant “belittling and berating” shrank her self-esteem and made her easier to control. A year later, she said in an interview, she was still suffering the repercussions: “I have panic attacks almost every single night.”

The term coercive control is embraced by some researchers to describe the dynamics of abuse because it encompasses acts like creeping isolation, entrapment, denigration, financial restrictions and threats of emotional and physical harm, including to pets or children, that are used to strip victims of power. Mild but frequent bodily aggression — pushing and grabbing, or increasing roughness during sex in a way the partner does not like — is another hallmark, experts said.

As destructive as those behaviors may be, they are not often treated by law enforcement or courts as improper on their own, sharpening the belief that victims must be battered and hospitalized before their accounts might be taken seriously. Doubt about how the justice system would treat them is not unfounded: About 88 percent of survivors surveyed by the ACLU said the police did not believe them or blamed them for the abuse.

The new laws to address coercive behaviors have raised some concerns from advocates who worry that — in court proceedings that lawyers in the field say are already stacked against survivors — the standard of proof might be too high, especially when officials don’t have the tools to identify and prove patterns of risky behavior. “Researchers understand coercive control as something that can help predict the outcome of a dangerous situation that becomes deadly,” said Rachel Louise Snyder , author of the 2019 book “No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us.” But, she added, “law enforcement doesn’t necessarily recognize that.”

Coercive control has been illegal in England and Wales since 2015, but 2018 saw the highest number of domestic violence-related killings in five years, according to the BBC . The Center for Women’s Justice, a British watchdog group, filed complaints in 2019 and 2020 alleging “systematic failure” on the part of police to safeguard victims. “Officers on the ground don’t understand” coercive control, said Harriet Wistrich, the center’s director. Though there has been some training, she emphasized that for the law to be most effective, police, social workers and the courts need to have a shared understanding of how emotional abuse can become criminal.

Others are concerned that, in the United States, adopting and implementing new laws could drain resources from survivors’ pressing logistical needs, or from other pathways to justice. A growing faction of advocates say the best response lies not in the criminal courts, with their racial and economic inequities, but in dialogue-based alternatives like restorative justice .

Judy Harris Kluger, a retired New York judge who is executive director of the nonprofit Sanctuary for Families , said she agreed that coercive control is important as a concept. As a judge, though, “I’d rather have energy put into enforcing the laws that we have,” she said, “but also focusing on other things besides litigation to address domestic violence,” like funding for prevention, housing and job programs for survivors. (Ms. Bush, newly appointed to the House judiciary committee, said she would work to advance policies that reduce harm without further criminalizing people; she is not in favor of coercive control legislation, she said.)

Still, supporters say that legally acknowledging how pernicious the problem is will make it easier to fight — and help force a reckoning over its pervasiveness.

They point to Scotland as a potential model. Its domestic abuse laws enacted in 2019 focus on coercive control and include funding for training; a majority of its police and support staff has taken mandatory courses to understand the issue, said Detective Superintendent Debbie Forrester, Police Scotland’s lead for domestic abuse. The judiciary got lessons too. Alongside a public campaign explaining that controlling behavior is illegal , the authorities put abusers on notice that they would be scrutinized: “We will speak to previous partners,” a police statement warned.

In the year following the law, the number of charges reported for prosecution related to domestic abuse jumped nearly 6 percent , according to the Scottish government. Though they could always prosecute violence, previously “there was nothing that was actually called domestic abuse,” Ms. Forrester said. “That has been really important for victims — they understand that the laws and the structure is there to support them.”

Susan Rubio, 50, the state senator from California who headed the effort to adopt new legislation there, said she was motivated partly by her own experiences. In 2016, during divorce proceedings, she accused her husband, Roger Hernández, a California state assemblyman, of domestic violence, describing instances in which he punched her in the chest and attempted to strangle her with a belt, court documents say. The judge granted her a restraining order. Mr. Hernández, who was gearing up for a congressional primary, denied the allegations. Rebuked by his statehouse colleagues, he disappeared from his congressional race. (Mr. Hernández did not respond to requests for comment.)

The law Ms. Rubio proposed, which allows coercive control to be used as evidence of domestic violence in family court, went into effect this month. It defined those behaviors as instances in which one party deprived, threatened or intimidated another, or controlled, regulated or monitored their “movements, communications, daily behavior, finances, economic resources or access to services.”

In Hawaii, the definition of domestic violence was expanded to acknowledge coercive control , including name-calling and degradation. The law was shaped in part by a researcher, Barbara Gerbert , and a local police officer, May Lee. “Domestic violence is a complex issue, but at the heart of it is the need for power and control,” Ms. Lee wrote to the legislature.

The term coercive control was popularized around 2007 by Evan Stark , a researcher and forensic social worker whose work was cited by governments in the United Kingdom.

The laws, in the United States and other countries, recognize an evolution in thought and research about domestic abuse, once normalized and minimized as an unfortunate outgrowth of bad relationships. Experts say research has increasingly shown the insufficiency of law enforcement approaches that treat domestic assaults as isolated incidents, akin to being punched by a stranger in a bar fight, and ignore the experiences of those for whom the abuse was often broader in scope and not always marked by violence, but debilitating, repetitive and no less damaging.

“We have failed to connect the dots until very recently in all these other ways,” Ms. Snyder, the author, said. “Coercive control laws are a first attempt to address some of that — the unseen dynamics that are so, so dangerous.”

Those who study domestic abuse say it follows a pattern: Ardent, rapid courtship that gives way to tests of loyalty, isolation from loved ones, belittling and deprivation of resources, whether it’s money, time, sleep or food — all in service of breaking down and controlling another person.

At the outset of a relationship, “love-bombing,” as it’s sometimes called, is a classic warning sign, experts say. “Showing up early to give the partner flowers. Picking her up when she doesn’t expect it,” said Chitra Raghavan , a forensic psychologist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The gestures may seem sweet, thoughtful, but they’re a test: Monopolizing a partner’s time and attention sows isolation and shows the abuser “that he can control her,” Dr. Raghavan said.

If a partner protests, an abuser may ratchet up the charm, experts said. The cycle gives the victim an illusion of control, and the perpetrator an excuse to mete out punishment: just don’t hang out with those friends, wear that outfit, cook that meal. But the boundaries for correct behavior keep shifting.

Ms. Bush’s former boyfriend had rules about how and when she could wash the dishes or use the stove, she recalled. FKA twigs, whose given name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, said that Mr. LaBeouf was feverishly jealous, and would also grow angry if she handed him his toothbrush when he was in the shower, even though that’s when he liked to brush his teeth. “He said that I was controlling, because I had given him the toothbrush with toothpaste,” she recalled.

(Mr. LaBeouf did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement to The New York Times when Ms. Barnett’s lawsuit was filed, he said: “I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt.” He added that “many” of the allegations by Ms. Barnett and another former girlfriend were not true, but gave no further details.)

Jennifer Spivak, 31, the founder of a digital advertising agency whose ex-boyfriend pleaded guilty in 2011 to felony strangulation, said that he more often used threats than physical violence. During the early wave of affection, she gave into requests like forgoing the gym to spend more time with him. She relinquished her privacy, showing her boyfriend her texts and emails. But he wasn’t satisfied.

“I became obsessed with figuring out how to keep things nice, moment to moment,” Ms. Spivak said. He would escort her to the bank and force her to cash her paychecks and relinquish the money, which complicated her ability to leave him.

For the most part, she said he didn’t hit her; rather she said he “psychologically tortured” her for small infractions like not answering his call at work, berating her for hours while she stood in the tub naked and he held an iron above the water.

“I would wonder, am I being abused if I don’t have any bruises?” said Ms. Spivak, whose isolation exacerbated her self-doubt. As a survivor, she makes a point to work with women, to boost others’ financial independence.

Ms. Barnett said that once she could finally see how bad things were with Mr. LaBeouf, she was too ashamed to admit it: “I just couldn’t connect with my old life, because it was a reminder of how far away I was from myself.” She filed the lawsuit, she said, to highlight the patterns in her relationship, and to show how anyone, no matter their status, can be ensnared.

The most dangerous moment for victims of domestic violence, experts say, is when they decide to end their relationship; on average, it takes seven attempts to leave an abuser, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Shame and fear — coupled with economic insecurity, racial and social justice concerns, and worries about destabilizing the household, especially with children — keep many from reporting their assaults or the terrors they live with, advocates say.

Ms. Rubio, the California lawmaker, resisted calling authorities during her marriage — despite her resources, she didn’t have the courage, she said, and worried about public scrutiny. “Coercive control, it paralyzes a victim,” she said.

Ms. Bush said her boyfriend’s violence escalated to the point that he once shot at her with a gun. She never called the police. “I didn’t want him to go to jail,” she said. “So I couldn’t figure out how to say what happened. And I didn’t want people to look at me like I was stupid — like, why are you with this guy? Because I’m smarter than what they’re going to think.”

As she enters Congress, Ms. Bush said she thinks of combating domestic violence as building a social movement to save lives. “Every time we see that someone died at the hands of their partners,” she said, “that’s something we could’ve stopped, as a society.”

If you or someone you know is being abused, support and help are available. Visit the hotline’s website or call 1-800-799-7233 .

Melena Ryzik is a roving culture reporter and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting on workplace sexual harassment. She covered Oscar season for five years, and has also been a national correspondent in San Francisco and the mid-Atlantic states. More about Melena Ryzik

Katie Benner covers the Justice Department. She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting on workplace sexual harassment issues. More about Katie Benner

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Pregnant women in Missouri can't get divorced. Critics say it fuels domestic violence

Katia Riddle

Missouri law requires women seeking divorce to disclose whether they're pregnant — and state judges won't finalize divorces during a pregnancy. Darya Komarova/Getty Images hide caption

Missouri law requires women seeking divorce to disclose whether they're pregnant — and state judges won't finalize divorces during a pregnancy.

The turning point for Destonee was a car ride.

She describes a scene of emotional abuse: Pregnant with her third child, her husband yelled at her while her older two kids listened in the car. "He would call me awful things in front of them," she says. "And soon my son would call me those names too."

She made up her mind to leave him, but when she went to a lawyer to file for divorce, she was told to come back when she was no longer pregnant.

Destonee requested she be identified by only her first name. She says she still lives with abusive threats from her ex-husband. She couldn't end her marriage because Missouri law requires women seeking divorce to disclose whether they're pregnant — and state judges won't finalize divorces during a pregnancy. Established in the 1970s, the rule was intended to make sure men were financially accountable for the children they fathered.

Advocates in Missouri are now pushing to change this law, arguing that it's being weaponized against victims of domestic violence and contributes to the contraction of women's reproductive freedoms in a post- Roe v. Wade landscape.

"In Missouri, it feels as though they have really closed down every door in terms of reproductive autonomy," says Kristen Marinaccio, an attorney and expert in divorce law who has examined these kinds of laws in Missouri and other states. She says beyond the legal and financial ties of marriage, there is powerful emotional weight to legally terminating a marriage. "You might just think, well, it's a piece of paper," she says, "but that piece of paper that tells you you're no longer in this horrible marriage is really freeing for a lot of clients."

After hearing stories about survivors unable to leave marriages, state Rep. Ashley Aune introduced House Bill 2402. It would allow pregnant women to finalize divorce in Missouri.

Aune says that the law has gone unexamined for too long and that policymakers need to give women the right to leave a dangerous or even life-threatening situation. "How can you look that person in the eye and say, 'No, I think you should stay with that person,'" says Aune, a Democrat. "That's wild to me."

Another survivor of domestic violence who asked to be identified by only her initial, L. — because she says she's still in hiding from her ex-husband — describes her encounter with the legal system when she tried to end her marriage. She had been holding onto the idea of filing for divorce as an emotional life raft for her and her child. When she finally pursued it, she says, her lawyer told her it wasn't possible due to her pregnancy. "I felt absolutely defeated in that moment," she recalls.

L. returned to her abusive marriage to wait out her pregnancy. She says she slept on a tile floor in the basement the night before she gave birth because "it was the only room in the house where there was a lock."

Texas and Arkansas have similar laws. It's impossible to know how often women are unable to leave marriages due to pregnancy. Some people may not even try to file for divorce because of the law; as in Destonee's case, lawyers might simply tell them to come back when they're not pregnant.

Advocates in Missouri who work with domestic violence victims say they consistently see pregnant women who want to leave but can't, and they warn that it isn't as simple as just waiting out the pregnancy. "When they do make that decision, it's a really big deal," says Meghann Kosman, an advocate for victims at an organization called North Star Advocacy Center, north of Kansas City, Missouri.

Kosman says it takes her clients a lot of courage and sometimes multiple attempts to leave.

"We have to honor that and respect that," she says, and "work with them because they're ready in that moment to make that change." The opportunity might not present itself again.

Reproductive restrictions as weapons

Another reason advocates say divorce laws like Missouri's need to change: The law enables a form of abuse called reproductive coercion. "The abusive partner utilizes pregnancy and children as a way to control their partner," explains Christina Cherry, a program manager at a domestic violence housing program with a Kansas City-based organization called Synergy Services.

Christina Cherry works for Synergy Services, a Kansas City, Mo., organization that works with survivors of domestic violence. She says Missouri's law enables a form of abuse called reproductive coercion, where "the abusive partner utilizes pregnancy and children as a way to control their partner." Dominick Williams for NPR hide caption

Christina Cherry works for Synergy Services, a Kansas City, Mo., organization that works with survivors of domestic violence. She says Missouri's law enables a form of abuse called reproductive coercion, where "the abusive partner utilizes pregnancy and children as a way to control their partner."

After turning away too many families that needed shelter, Synergy Services decided to create its own housing. The group's administrative offices are pictured. Dominick Williams for NPR hide caption

After turning away too many families that needed shelter, Synergy Services decided to create its own housing. The group's administrative offices are pictured.

On this day, Cherry stands inside an old Kansas City school that her organization is renovating to provide housing for survivors of domestic violence. "These units will be our four-bedroom units," she says, gesturing to the vaulted ceiling in what was formerly the school's gymnasium. They will house families of eight. Cherry says they could potentially receive even bigger families.

The organization decided to create its own housing after turning away too many families that needed housing, especially large families due to pregnancies forced on women by their abusers. "They continue having children, but they can't afford to house them. They remain in poverty," Cherry explains.

Leaving the marriage, she says, becomes nearly impossible.

Cherry says when she heard that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, she immediately felt dread for her clients who would now have even less ability to control their pregnancies. Her organization and others like it report turning away nearly 3,000 people who needed shelter last year in the Kansas City area.

This old Kansas City school is being renovating by Synergy Services to provide housing for survivors of domestic violence. Dominick Williams for NPR hide caption

This old Kansas City school is being renovating by Synergy Services to provide housing for survivors of domestic violence.

There's a particular need to provide housing for large families due to pregnancies forced on women by their abusers, according to Christina Cherry of Synergy Services. Parts of the old school building will eventually house families of eight. Dominick Williams for NPR hide caption

There's a particular need to provide housing for large families due to pregnancies forced on women by their abusers, according to Christina Cherry of Synergy Services. Parts of the old school building will eventually house families of eight.

Missouri isn't the only place struggling with this issue in a post- Roe world. "We're seeing lots more people citing reproductive coercion, sexual coercion, reproductive abuse or pregnancy coercion as part of their experience," says Marium Durrani, vice president of policy for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Her organization reports a nearly 100% increase in hotline calls across the U.S. in the year after the Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion. "I mean, we are getting calls that are very explicitly like 'I am pregnant.' 'I am trying to escape.' 'I cannot get resources where I am or in my state or my locality,'" Durrani says.

Bill that would abolish Missouri's divorce rule isn't certain to pass

In Missouri, it's not clear whether Aune's legislation will pass, despite international media attention. "I don't honestly feel very hopeful," says Aune, who notes that passing any kind of legislation is difficult for Democrats in Missouri's Republican-dominated statehouse.

Aune is more optimistic about the useful conversation she says she recently had with Missouri judges, who she hopes will be more aware of the dynamics around abuse when making decisions involving divorce and pregnancy. The bill's passage, she says, is still possible in a future legislative session.

It took Destonee three months after her baby was born to leave her husband. Her ex still has partial custody of the children, an arrangement she says is still very difficult to navigate. But her overwhelming feeling, she says, is of being free. She's proud of herself and of the person who was "so strong and didn't even know it at the time."

So strong, she says, she saved herself and her children even without the support of her state.

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Gov. Stitt defends controversial immigration bill, veto of domestic violence bill

G ov. Kevin Stitt focused on two pieces of legislation at his news conference wrapping up the week on Friday. One was a border security bill he signed in spite of widespread criticism. The other was a domestic violence bill he vetoed -- also to criticism. The Senate overrode his veto, and House response is pending.

Stitt recently signed a controversial new bill into law that would allow local and state law enforcement officials to remove undocumented immigrants from Oklahoma. The bill had passed the House and Senate by wide margins, but critics said border enforcement was the federal government's job and that the law could lead to racial profiling.

Earlier in the week Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley told a local television station his department was "pretty much caught off guard" by passage of the bill and unclear about expectations as to how the law should be enforced.

But Stitt said, "I think we can all agree. We have to have secure borders, and this puts more tools in the tool belts of law enforcement."

Here are other takeaways from the governor's news conference:

On domestic violence: Stitt explains veto on Oklahoma Survivors' Act

Stitt vetoed a bill known as the  Oklahoma Survivors’ Act , written to  help survivors of domestic violenc e, and the Senate promptly voted 46-1 to override the veto. The House has yet to act on the bill.

The bill allows courts to consider as a mitigating factor in sentencing evidence that persons convicted of a crime have been abused physically, sexually, or psychologically by the person’s sexual partner, family members, members of the household or others.

More: Stitt backs away from .25 personal income tax cut; calls for 'flattening' of income tax brackets

Stitt said the bill, as written, was "bad policy." He said work was underway on a better bill that would accomplish the objective of protecting domestic violence victims.

On the continued calls for a state income tax cut

Stitt repeated his support for a state income tax cut.

He said his new plan is, "let's just leave the top tax bracket where it is at 4.75 and then let's do away with all the bottom brackets. That would help the poorest Oklahomans. In other words, every Oklahoman that makes less than $27,100 would pay no taxes."

Inflation, Stitt said, was in effect cutting everybody's pay. "Let's do something for people who are hurting," he said.

On disaster relief for Oklahoma tornado damage

The governor complimented the legislature for setting aside $45 million for disaster relief. He said a total damage estimate was not yet available, but that the Department of Emergency Management was gathering information for a report to the federal government.

Stitt said he and President Joe Biden had talked on the phone Sunday and, "we've got a great relationship. "This passes through all politics, and they just really want to help Oklahoma right now."

On Oklahoma's 'blacklist' law for companies critical of oil and gas

Stitt said he was disappointed by a district court judge's decision to halt — at least temporarily — a state law that places  banks and financial companies on a blacklist  if they invest in entities critical of the oil and gas industry. Under the law, those blacklisted companies are prevented from doing business with the state.

Stitt said he disagreed with Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who fired the attorney representing the state in the case, Cheryl Plaxico. He said she was "the very best."

"As to the merits of the bill, I don't know how anybody could argue with that." Stitt said. "We're not going to let companies come into Oklahoma and attack our oil and gas industry."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Gov. Stitt defends controversial immigration bill, veto of domestic violence bill

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Expanding clergy sexual abuse probe targets New Orleans Catholic church leaders

FILE - This Dec. 1, 2012 file photo shows a silhouette of a crucifix and a stained glass window inside a Catholic Church in New Orleans. In April 2024, Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - This Sept. 21, 2019, file booking image made from video and provided by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office in New Orleans, La., shows George F. Brignac. Litigation involving Brignac turned up thousands of still-secret emails documenting behind-the-scenes public relations work that New Orleans Saints executives did for the archdiocese in 2018 and 2019 to contain fallout from clergy abuse scandals. (Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)

FILE - In this March 27, 2019, file photo, New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond speaks during an interview at the archdiocese office in New Orleans, La. In April 2024, Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse. (David Grunfeld/The Advocate via AP, File)

FILE - Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including Richard Windmann, left, and John Gianoli, right, hold signs during a conference in front of the New Orleans Saints training facility in Metairie, La., Wednesday Jan. 29, 2020. In April 2024, Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities have expanded an investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans to include senior church officials suspected of shielding predatory priests for decades and failing to report their crimes to law enforcement.

Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant last week at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse.

The search signaled a new phase of the investigation that will seek to determine what particular church leaders, including Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his predecessors, knew about claims that the warrant describes as “ignored and in many cases covered up.”

“The Archdiocese of New Orleans has been openly discussing the topic of sex abuse for over 20 years,” Bill Kearney, an archdiocese spokesman, said in a statement. “In keeping with this, we also are committed to working with law enforcement in these endeavors.”

The warrant contained several new details about the sex-trafficking investigation, including claims that some victims were sexually assaulted in a seminary swimming pool after being ordered to “skinny dip.” Separately, the warrant says, predatory priests developed a system of sharing victims by giving them “gifts” that they were instructed to pass on to clergymen at other schools or churches.

“It was said that the ‘gift’ was a form of signaling to another priest that the person was a target for sexual abuse,” state police investigator Scott Rodrigue wrote in an affidavit in support of the warrant.

The warrant sought an exhaustive range of personnel records, “files contained in any and all safes” and documents showing the extent to which the archdiocese continued supporting clergymen even after they were added to the so-called credibly accused list of suspected predators.

The warrant also confirmed a parallel FBI examination of clergy sexual abuse reported by The Associated Press nearly two years ago. That investigation has examined whether priests took children across state lines to molest them.

“No one and no institution is above the law, especially when we are talking about protecting children from the horrors of child sexual abuse,” said Kathryn Robb, executive director of Child USAdvocacy, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of child sexual abuse accusers. “This warrant is the necessary muscle of the criminal system to protect children.”

Many of the most explosive church records surfaced in a flood of sexual abuse lawsuits that drove the archdiocese to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection four years ago. The documents chronicle years of abuse claims, interviews with accused clergy and a pattern of church leaders transferring problem priests, but they have been shielded under a sweeping confidentiality order in the bankruptcy case that has long hampered the state and federal investigations.

“We have been forced, against our own professional obligations, to keep them secret,” said attorneys Richard Trahant, Soren Gisleson and John Denenea, who represent the accusers.

The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday and rarely weighs in on developments in local clergy abuse cases. But for decades, the message from Rome to local church leaders was to keep clergy abuse files in the secret archives.

To date, the Vatican still has not required abuse cases to be reported to police around the world, though it now says local church leaders should comply with whatever civil reporting laws are in place. In addition, as the clergy abuse scandal has continued to cause a credibility crisis for the Catholic hierarchy worldwide, Pope Francis in 2019 removed the top-level secrecy that covered abuse cases, known as the pontifical secret.

Prior to that, local church leaders regularly invoked the pontifical secret as a reason to resist criminal subpoenas. In theory, the removal of the secret removed any official barrier to such cooperation.

In New Orleans, the search could deepen the legal peril for church leaders, exposing them to potential state court prosecutions even as the U.S. Justice Department has struggled to identify federally prosecutable crimes related to clergy sexual abuse.

Last year, an Orleans Parish grand jury indicted Lawrence Hecker, a now-92-year-old disgraced priest, on charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1975 — an extraordinary prosecution that prompted the broader search of the archdiocese last week.

Hecker has pleaded not guilty to counts of rape, kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft. He is accused of choking the teen unconscious under the guise of performing a wrestling move and sexually assaulting him.

The archdiocese failed to report Hecker’s admissions to law enforcement while permitting him to work around children until he quietly left the ministry in 2002. Church officials reassigned Hecker even after he was sent to a psychiatric facility in Pennsylvania and “diagnosed as a pedophile,” the warrant says.

“Hecker was not the only member of the archdiocese sent to receive psychiatric testing based on allegations of child sexual abuse,” Rodrigue wrote in the warrant.

The age of the Hecker case presents legal and evidentiary hurdles for prosecutors, who also face the political sensitivity of prosecuting a longtime clergyman in heavily Catholic New Orleans. Many predator priests have escaped criminal consequences in Louisiana for those reasons, making the scope of last week’s search even more notable.

One high-profile exception came in 2019 in the case of George F. Brignac, a longtime deacon and schoolteacher charged with sexually assaulting a then-altar boy in the 1970s. Brignac died in 2020 while awaiting trial at the age of 85. He had pleaded not guilty.

Litigation involving Brignac turned up thousands of still-secret emails documenting behind-the-scenes public relations work that New Orleans Saints executives did for the archdiocese in 2018 and 2019 to contain fallout from clergy abuse scandals.

Associated Press reporter Nicole Winfield contributed from Rome.

Contact AP’s global investigative team at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/

Molly Ticehurst's family calls for 'Molly's Law' to monitor alleged domestic violence offenders released on bail

Family and friends of Molly Ticehurst are calling for legislative change to be introduced in her name in New South Wales, which would ensure authorities know at all times the location of people on bail when they are facing domestic violence charges.

A family spokesperson has responded after NSW Premier Chris Minns announced the state government will seek legal advice as to whether urgent law reform is needed in relation to bail laws. 

Jacinda Acheson says legislative changes should ensure authorities like police were notified if alleged perpetrators breached bail or other court directions. 

"There has to be something put in place that says if you receive bail today, we will know where you are the minute you walk out of there," Ms Acheson said. 

"The monitoring devices need to be put in place and it needs to become Molly's Law.

"Molly did everything that she could and, when she finally became brave enough, and let's make that abundantly clear that Molly was brave, very, very brave and courageous, to ask for help, the help was not given," Jacinda Acheson said. 

"The judicial system let Molly down; the victim support teams let Molly down.

"In Molly's case the police did everything they could do to keep Molly safe."

State Member for Orange Phil Donato met with the father of Ms Ticehurst on Monday.

Mr Donato said he had spoken with the premier and would be advocating for it to become mandatory for alleged perpetrators of domestic violence crimes to wear electronic tracking devices. 

"It is already working in the parole space. There is no reason why it couldn't be extended also to the protection of victims of domestic violence," he said.

"If they were to breach an area they were not meant to go, the authorities or the victim could be alerted as soon as possible."

Calls for increased monitoring

Responding to the Ticehurst family's proposal for increased monitoring, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said on Wednesday "everything is on the table" and that the government would be advised on the idea of ankle bracelets for alleged DV offenders.

"Any measures put in place to assist [alleged] DV victims, we support."

The NSW Nationals have added their support to calls for increased monitoring.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said police had a "seat at the table" and would work with the government on any initiatives.

"Normally electronic monitoring is done by another agency, so if there are any breaches of that we may be notified," she said.

"We'd need to work through [any changes to] that in detail."

Commissioner Webb said victims should not be discouraged from speaking up.

"There are services available to help victims navigate their way," she said.

"It takes some victims many occasions before they come forward, but when they're ready, we're ready."

Lights on for Molly 

Ms Ticehurst's family and friends are urging people around Australia to pay tribute to her on Wednesday night by leaving their front lights on. 

"Things happen the dark. Leave your light on for Molly," Ms Acheson said. 

"Speak their names, don't let them turn into statistics. Tell their stories, not the perpetrator's stories. Relate to them as if they are your daughters, your sisters, your friends."

A special tribute is also being planned on Mother's Day in Forbes. 

"There's a walk on Mother's Day. It's a gentle and friendly walk for people to be able to show support to each other, to the family and think and think and reflect on Molly," Ms Acheson said.

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