Spousal Abuse Laws
Spousal abuse or domestic violence laws are designed to serve three primary and essential purposes. First, these statutes are created to penalize appropriately those individuals who are guilty of committing crimes of spousal abuse. Second, spousal abuse laws include provisions designed to require an offender to participate in therapeutic programming in hopes of preventing a re-occurrence of this crime. Finally, spousal abuse laws are drafted with a component intended to provide at least some protection to the victim from further assault by the offender.
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History
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Prior to the latter part of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, many states did not have a separate set of laws designed to address spousal abuse. If charges were brought against a spouse who allegedly battered or assaulted his spouse, they were pursued under more generalized assault and battery statutes.
In time, advocates for stiffer and specific statutes pertaining to spousal or domestic assault caught the attention of lawmakers in state legislatures across the country. The net result was the enactment of legislation directly addressing spousal or domestic abuse in all states within the U.S.
Definition
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Initially, laws addressing spousal abuse were somewhat limited as far as who was a victim of such a crime. As the moniker "spousal abuse laws" suggest, these early enactments provided protection to the wives (and, far less frequently, husbands). In fairly short order there was an understanding among lawmakers and others that the scope of these types of laws needed to extend beyond married couples to include individuals who were living together and not married.
As the broader concept of domestic assault grew, the scope of these laws expanded to include children and other family members who reside with the offender. Ultimately, these types of laws were applied in situations in which the offender and victim were not necessarily living together at the time of the alleged assault but who resided together at some point in the more recent past (usually within six months to one year).
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Punishment
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The typical spousal abuse or domestic violence statute provides for graduated punishment. An individual convicted of spousal abuse for the first time commonly is sentenced to a term of supervised probation.
Future convictions for spousal abuse result in ever-increasing terms of incarceration, followed by terms of parole.
A caveat to progressive sentencing in spousal abuse cases arises if the battery associated with the case is more significant. Although there tend not to be any hard-and-fast rules in this regard, if a spouse ends up seeking more than minimal medical attention following a battery by a spouse, the offender more than likely will be facing at least some confinement, even on a first offense.
Therapy
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In virtually all cases in which a person has been convicted of spousal or domestic abuse, a course of therapeutic treatment will be ordered by the court. The only real exception to the therapy or counseling requirement is if a defendant is proactive and has undertaken this type of treatment prior to coming before the court for sentencing and has no other serious case on his record.
At one end of the spectrum a therapeutic requirement is participation in an anger management class. A notch up from that is one-on-one anger management counseling. If an offender exhibits ongoing problems with violent conduct--whether in or out of a domestic setting--that defendant will face the prospect of in-depth treatment either in the form of group or one-on-one therapy for a period of time that likely will extend beyond a year.
In a considerable number of spousal abuse cases intoxication either by alcohol or another mind-altering substance plays a role. Therefore, alcohol or drug education, counseling or treatment commonly is ordered by a court.
Protection
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An order of protection (also known as a restraining order) always is issued on at least a temporary basis at the time a spousal abuse case is filed in court. Typically, that temporary order will become permanent following a hearing by the court. "Permanent" is something of a misnomer inasmuch as must so-called permanent restraining orders expire either by law or within the confines of the orders themselves after one year unless renewed by the court. However, there are judges who are now more inclined to issue indefinite restraining orders with greater frequency.
Simply because the victim requests that the court set aside a restraining order does not mean the court will comply. Although a victim has the ability to have a court dismiss a civil restraining order, she lacks that power in a criminal case.
Commonly, a court will consider setting aside a restraining order when the offender has no significant criminal history, completes his therapeutic requirements and the abuse alleged in the case at hand did not cause any major or lasting bodily harm.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Chancaca, Everystockphoto.com
