Comment by Tülin D. Açikalin
For hundreds of years, domestic violence was legal and socially encouraged. Only recently have states withdrawn legal support for physical abuse within the home. This socially entrenched epidemic has never faced the type of governmental challenge that is embodied in the Violence Against Women Acts (VAWA) I and II. This is due in large part to the ideology of the public/private dichotomy. The traditional theory of state nonintervention in the private, family sphere has left domestic violence victims alone to fend for themselves. VAWA I and II demonstrate an ideological shift away from the public/private dichotomy. This public policy choice by Congress to take affirmative steps to protect the individual freedom of women within the family structure is still resisted by the courts. This Comment chronicles the history of and the state's role in regulating domestic violence. It questions the validity of the public/private dichotomy and the tradition of governmental inaction in the sphere of domestic violence and challenges the judiciary to join the legislature in abandoning the dichotomy.
About the Author
Tülin D. Açikalin. J.D. candidate 2000, Tulane University School of Law; B.S.M. 1994, Tulane University.
Citation
74 Tul. L. Rev. 1045 (2000)