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78 Marq. L. Rev. 79 (1994-1995)
Domestic Violence and the State: Response to and Rationales for Spousal Battering, Marital Rape &(and) Stalking

handle is hein.journals/marqlr78 and id is 87 raw text is: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THE STATE: RESPONSES TO AND RATIONALES FOR SPOUSAL BATTERING, MARITAL RAPE & STALKING KATImRIN' M. SCHELONG* I. INTRODUCTION Although the home has traditionally been extolled as a safe haven and marriage as the most venerable of our institutions, the reality for women1 is that they are at far greater risk of being assaulted in their own homes by a loved one than they are of being assaulted on the streets by a stranger.2 In fact, it is recognized both nationally and internation- ally that women are routinely raped, beaten, assaulted, and stalked by current and former husbands or boyfriends.3 The statistics speak for themselves. In 1986 alone, a woman was the victim of rape or attempted rape every 3 1/2 minutes.' Most rapes are committed by non-strangers, that is, husbands or dates.5 Additionally, approximately 200,000 people, the majority of whom are women, are harassed by stalkers each year.6 Most stalking is related to domestic violence and former intimate relationships.7 Ninety percent of women killed8 by husbands or boyfriends were stalked.9 * The author would like to thank Clinical Professor Laura Berend of the University of San Diego School of Law for her invaluable comments and suggestions on this article, as well as for her support and encouragement. 1. Although men can be victims of domestic violence and domestic violence can occur in gay and lesbian relationships, studies have shown that women in heterosexual relationships are victims of family violence at the rate of three times that of men and that of all crimes of domestic violence, ninety-one percent were women victimized by their husbands or ex-hus- bands. See PATSY A. KLAUs ET AL, BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS, FAMILY VIOLENCE 4 (April 1994). Therefore, the scope of this paper is limited to male-female domestic violence. 2. Lynn Hecht Schafran, Carol Stuart and the War on Women: What is the Legal Commu- nity's Response?, 75 MASS. L. REv. 46, 47 (1990). 3. See Dorothy Q. Thomas & Michele E. Beasley, Domestic Violence as a Human Rights Issue, 15 HUM. Rrs. Q. 36 (1993) (domestic violence is endemic to all societies, it is neither unusual nor an exception to normal family life). 4. Schafran, supra note 2, at 48. 5. Id. 6. Nina Schuyler, No Place To Hide, CAL. LAW., June 1993, at 18, 18. 7. Robert A. Guy, Jr., Note, The Nature and Constitutionality of Stalking Laws, 46 VAND. L. RFv. 991, 995 n.32 (1993). 8. Kathleen G. McAnaney et al., Note, From Imprudence to Crime: Anti-Stalking Laws, 68 NoTms DAME L. REv. 819, 838 (1993). (The FBI's 1990 Supplemental Homicide Report

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