Legal Responses to Wife Assault

Current Trends and Evaluation

An increase in the legal response to wife assault is evident in North America, largely in reaction to earlier calls for greater responsiveness by the legal system. However--not one change has occurred without controversy. Legal Responses to Wife Assault offers in-depth coverage of four major themes: historical framework of legal response to wife assault; police attitudes and action (or inaction); prosecution, mediation, and treatment within the court system; and victims as defendants and participants in the legal system. Chapters examine past and present policies of specific branches of the legal system, discuss the merits and demerits of those approaches, and explore implications for the future. The authors not only pull together recent evaluation research in an accessible form, but they highlight their own work as well. Human services and legal professionals, as well as students and researchers in these areas, will find the book invaluable.