[FN13]. This story, and others like it throughout this article, is based on my personal experience in working with hundreds of clients litigating domestic violence cases. The names of all persons have been changed to protect their privacy and, in some instances, attorney-client privilege. Minor details of some stories have also been altered to make the cases less easy to identify and further protect victim privacy.
[FN14]. See, e.g., Angela Browne, When Battered Women Kill 68 (1987); Lenore E. Walker, The Battered Woman 43-44 (1979).
[FN15]. I have represented numerous domestic violence survivors who have been subjected to these types of injuries.
[FN16]. Murder-suicides are not uncommon in domestic violence cases. See Jacquelyn C. Campbell, Methodological Issues in Risk Assessment Research for Family Violence, paper presented at Program Evaluation and Family Violence: An International Conference (July 27, 1998) (stating that 30% of U.S. intimate partner homicides are homicide-suicides); Department of Justice Canada, Domestic Homicides Involving the Use of Firearms 29 (Mar. 1992) (stating that 47% of all domestic homicides involving a firearm resulted in suicide or attempted suicide of the accused and that the same is true for 71% of all firearm-related murders in which husbands killed their wives); Dora Black et al., Father Kills Mother: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Children, 57 Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics 152 (1992); Donna Wills, Domestic Violence: The Case for Aggressive Prosecution, 7 UCLA Women's L.J. 173, 181 (1997).
[FN17]. See Angela Browne, Violence Against Women: Relevance for Medical Practitioners, 267 JAMA 3184, 3185 (1992).
[FN18]. See Diana E. H. Russell, Rape in Marriage 64 (1982).
[FN19]. See Angela Browne & Kirk R. Williams, Exploring the Effect of Resource Availability and the Likelihood of Female-Perpetrated Homicides, 23 Law & Soc'y Rev. 75, 78 (1989).
[FN20]. See Teri Randall, Domestic Violence Intervention Calls for More Than Treating Injuries, 264 JAMA 939, 939 (1990).
[FN21]. Til Violence Do Us Part, supra note 8, at 26.
[FN22]. See Judith McFarlane, Barbara Parker, Karen Soeken, & Linda Bullock, Assessing for Abuse During Pregnancy: Severity and Frequency of Injuries and Associated Entry Into Prenatal Care, 267 JAMA 3176, 3177 (1992) (in study of 691 black, Hispanic, and white women in public prenatal clinics in Houston and Baltimore, 17% reported physical and/or sexual abuse during pregnancy).
[FN23]. See Judith McFarlane, Battering During Pregnancy: Tip of an Iceberg Revealed, 15 Women & Health 69, 71, 73 (Fall 1989).
[FN24]. See Women and Violence: Hearings Before the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary on Legislation to Reduce the Growing Problem of Violence Crime Against Women, 101st Cong., 2d Sess., pt. 2, at 142 (1991) (statement of Susan Kelly-Dreiss, discussing several Pennsylvania studies); Til Violence Do Us Part, supra note 8, at 26.
[FN25]. See, e.g., Peter G. Jaffe et al., Children of Battered Women 26 (1990); Maria Roy, Children in the Crossfire: Violence in the Home--How Does It Affect Our Children? 92 (1988) (stating that 62% of sons over age 15 living in families where adult-on-adult abuse occurred were injured in attempts to rescue mothers from beating by male partners). "The younger the children, the more likely injuries would be serious, such as broken shoulders, ribs, concussions." Id. at 92. These children also suffer psychological injury. See Jaffe et al., supra, at 26-30.
[FN26]. See Women and Violence: Hearings Before the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary on Legislation to Reduce the Growing Problem of Violence Crime Against Women, 101st Cong. 131 (1991) (statement of Susan Kelly-Dreiss).
[FN27]. See id. (statement of Sarah M. Buel, Assistant District Attorney, Mass., and Supervisor, Harvard Law School Battered Women's Advocacy Project).
[FN28]. See id. at 89 (testimony of Charlotte Fedders); see also Naomi R. Cahn, Civil Images of Battered Women: The Impact of Domestic Violence on Child Custody Decisions, 44 Vand. L. Rev. 1041, 1055-56 (1991); Gerald T. Hotaling & David B. Sugarman, An Analysis of Risk Markers in Husband to Wife Violence: The Current State of Knowledge, 1 Violence & Victims 101, 106 (1986); Straus, supra note 9.
[FN29]. See, e.g., Hotaling & Sugarman, supra note 28, at 106.
[FN30]. See Bureau of Juvenile Justice, Violence by and Against America's Children, Digest XVII(12), at 6 (on file with author); see also Donna M. Welch, Mandatory Arrest of Domestic Abusers: Panacea or Perpetuation of the Problem of Abuse? 43 DePaul L. Rev. 1133, 1136-37 & n.31 (1994) (noting that husbands who grow up in violent homes commit three times as many serious domestic assaults as those who do not).