DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

By Timothy S. Black

This position paper is a guest column that Judge Tim Black authored for the Cincinnati Enquirer on the important issue of Domestic Violence.

Domestic violence is the single, most common source of injury to women in the United States -- more common than muggings, cars crashes and rapes combined. Indeed, more than one third of the women visiting emergency rooms in this country are there as a result of domestic violence. Furthermore, FBI studies conclusively establish that domestic violence is the single greatest cause of homicides to women in America. In light of these appalling statistics, taking domestic violence seriously seems so obvious.

The impact of domestic violence is far flung, and beyond the battered partner, the collateral victims are usually the children who witness the violence in their homes. The medical experts consistently conclude that battering is a learned behavior, conduct that perpetrators employ because they have seen with their own eyes that it is effective. Thus, the most likely candidate to commit domestic violence is a male who as a child witnessed the beating of his mother by her partner.

Surely we as a community cannot sit idly by and permit violence to be perpetrated upon victims by assaultive partners (95% of whom are male). No one I have ever met has suggested that marriage or cohabitation is license to assault or threaten a partner.

As a community, one of these most important contributions we can make toward achieving a safer society is to condemn family violence whenever we can. I certainly do, as any of the batterers convicted in my