Mikulski, Barbara A.

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Domestic Violence - Responding to a National Tragedy

University of Baltimore School of Law

University of Baltimore Law ForumVolume 11Number 1 Fall 1981 Article 21981Domestic Violence - Responding to a NationalTragedyBarbara A. MikulskiFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lfPart of the Law CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion inUniversity of Baltimore Law Forum by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. For more information,please contact snolan@ubalt.edu.Recommended CitationMikulski, Barbara A. (1981) "Domestic Violence - Responding to a National Tragedy," University of Baltimore Law Forum: Vol. 11: No.1, Article 2.Available at: http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lf/vol11/iss1/2Al/ IDOMESTIC VIOLENCE -RESPONDING TO ANATIONAL TRAGEDYby Barbara A. MikulskiOn February 4, 1981, the Domestic Violence Preven-tion & Services Act was re-introduced in the 97th Con-gress by Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski, with GeorgeMiller and Lindy Boggs, as H.R. 1651. This legislationhas been one of Ms. Mikulski's top priorities during thefour and a half years she has been a member of Con-gress. She discusses this proposed legislation in the fol-lowing article.Before becoming a Member of Congress, I was a so-cial worker, and dealt with many cases of child abuse. Iwitnessed examples of terrible cruelty within the Ameri-can family-at all levels of society. Yet, there is virtuallyno public recognition of the problem. Spouse abuse isjoked about in a trivializing, derogatory manner. Thelack of recognition is reflected in our social service sys-tem, which has no thorough, consistent way to respondto a serious and widespread problem.The statistics are horrifying:- The FBI estimates that an American womanis abused every 18 seconds. This adds up tonearly 5,000 women abused each day.- One in every six American couples will ex-perience a violent episode this year. Serious physi-cal harm occurs in nearly 10 percent of thecouples in our nation.- The National Institute of Mental Health hasestimated that 1.8 million wives per year are se-verely assaulted; child abuse is estimated to occurin one-half of these families.- Spouse abuse contributes to one-fourth ofall divorces in this country.- One-eighth of all murders in this country arebetween spouses.- More police die in answering domestic vio-lence calls than in any other part of their work.(The FBI estimates this to be 22.2% of the total.)- Once it occurs, domestic violence tends to re-cur with increasing severity.Due to my interest in this subject, many women haveconfidentially communicated their experiences to me -and their experiences are positively heartbreaking. Ilearned that battered wives can be found in every eco-nomic and social group. The boundaries of age, wealth,ethnicity, and geography just do not apply. In addition,recent evidence has shown that the beating and tor-menting of elderly people is an overwhelming problemjust starting to emerge. Domestic violence is a quiet epi-demic and it is getting worse as our national economydeteriorates.Life in American society is increasingly difficult, com-plex, and scary. People are afraid they won't be able toafford enough gas to get to work; that they will lose theirjobs because of economic conditions; or that they will beunable to pay their home heating bill. When they get tothe grocery store, they find they can't even buy ham-burger anymore! We should not be surprised that thesetensions and frustrations are manifested in the home, atthe expense of anyone weaker or dependent.Once begun, violence in the home escalates dramati-cally. After a husband has hit his wife for the first timewith no adverse reaction, it is easier to hit her a secondand third time, until severe beatings become a way oflife, reverberating throughout the family. Children, ob-serving this violence, learn that hitting is an acceptableform of behavior, and tend to become batterers them-selves.This violence starting in the home has repercussionsthroughout society. A recent survey of juvenile offendersindicated that a large percentage had either been victimsor witnesses of violence in their homes.Many women are reluctant to take action to defendthemselves. This is due to the pervasive female stereo-types and because most women are economically de-pendent upon their husbands. Therefore, a womantakes that big step to leave, only in desperation. Then,very often they have nowhere to go.Police have been reluctant to get involved in domesticviolence cases. Society treats domestic violence as an in-ternal family matter. The justice system has made it diffi-cult to press charges. Many of the same value judge-ments affecting rape cases apply here, and manyprosecutors, who do not want to get involved, try to per-suade the woman to drop her case.Hospital emergency rooms ignore the real causes ofinjury accepting obviously false explanations that leteverybody off the hook, because the domestic violencemakes everyone uncomfortable. Traditional social serv-ice agencies have long been insensitive to the problemsof battered women.Women's groups have stepped in to fill the void. Bysetting up shelters for battered women, they meet theneeds of these women in a sensitive, effective manner.Staffed almost entirely by volunteers (many of themformer victims of abuse), shelters are a fine example ofinnovative, grass-roots organizing by concerned peopleto save the lives and health of others.In addition to giving refuge to domestic violence vic-tims, most shelters provide telephone information andadvice and counseling for the abused spouse and herfamily, including the batterer. Shelters serve as impor-FORUMtant resource centers. At a shelter, the woman is able tocatch her breath - both physically and psychologically.She is given the information necessary to make deter-mination about her future. The shelter is an intermediatesolution; an essential one.Shelters do not have the financial resources to meetthe enormous demand for their services. Despite exten-sive fund-raising attempts and despite the fact that moststaff members go without pay, shelters are not able totake in all the battered women and children that needrefuge.The House of Ruth in Baltimore, run by an outstand-ing group of selfless, dedicated people, is a typical ex-ample. Last summer, while they sheltered 60 womenand their children, they had to turn away an additional75 women, due to a lack of space and money. In justthree months, they provided telephone counseling to465 battered women-all of whom might need housingat some point. The problem is far worse at many othershelters. The battered woman who flees her home in themiddle of the night in terror for her life should not get toa shelter with her children to find the doors bolted be-cause there was no money to pay the rent.In my first term in Congress, I introduced legislation todeal with this problem, but it was defeated. This disap-pointing setback provided an opportunity to developone of the most diverse, effective coalitions I have everseen organized around such an issue. In the last twoyears, over 90 organizations have endorsed the legisla-tion. They include law enforcement and legal organiza-tions - the International Association of Police Chiefs, theInternational Brotherhood of Police Officers, the Na-tional District Attorneys Association, and the AmericanBar Association; church groups - the National Confer-ence of Catholic Charities, American Baptist ChurchesUSA, the National Council of Jewish Women, and theNational Council of Churches; labor unions - the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County, andMunicipal Employees, and the National Football LeaguePlayers Association; health organizations - the AmericanNurses Association, the American Public Health Associa-tion, and the American Psychiatric Association; andwomen's groups - the Women's Equity Action League,the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and theAmerican Association of University Women. The chiefparticipant is the National Coalition Against Domestic Vi-olence, made up entirely of the people who work in theshelters.In the 96th Congress, George Miller (CA), LindyBoggs (LA), and I introduced H.R. 2977, The DomesticViolence Prevention and Services Act of 1979.To address the concerns of some Republican mem-bers of the Subcommittee, modifications were made. Afederal direct grant was eliminated entirely, so all grantfunds go through the states. A proposed national mediacampaign was eliminated, a matching formula was in-cluded in the bill.A broad-based coalition of support developed withinthe House. Congressman Henry Hyde, author of theamendments banning use of federal funds for abortions,testified on behalf of the bill, as a consistent, active sup-porter. When the bill passed the House on December12, 1979, by a vote of 292-106, all 16 members of theCongresswomen's Caucus and nearly half the Republi-cans present voted for passage.This was a fantastic victory. The legislation emergedfrom the House intact with the exception of an amend-ment, explicitly stating that it expires at the end of threeyears. Then we took the issue to the Senate.Senator Alan Cranston of California introduced acompanion bill to H.R. 2977; similar, but not identical,and the full Senate passed this legislation by a vote of46-41.In late September, a House and the Senate Confer-ence combined the two versions, retaining the best pro-visions of both bills, to provide desperately needed fi-nancial assistance to shelters in a fiscally responsiblemanner. The bill that emerged emphasizes local controlof the specific needs of each community, with shelters tobe provided with resources which will enable them toobtain permanent non-federal funding.The conference report passed in the House of Repre-sentatives by a vote of 276 to 117, on October 1, 1980.After the election, a small group of right-wing senatorsdecided to make this bill a test issue. They had gainedcontrol of the Senate and did not want to pass any legis-lation not of their own making. Rather than subject thebill to their threatened fillibuster, Senator Cranston de-cided to withdraw it from the calendar of the lame ducksession of the 96th Congress then underway.Since its reintroduction in the 97th Congress, the billhas already acquired fifty-two co-sponsors. This is veryencouraging since many of these are legislators who didnot sponsor it before. When it passes it will represent theculmination of five years of hard work in Congress, witheven longer efforts by thousands of concerned individ-uals throughout the country.By mobilizing our broad-based coalition of support Iam confident we will win, assisting shelters to serve theircommunities more effectively.

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Domestic Violence - Responding to a National Tragedy

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