Refocusing on women: A new direction for policy and research on intimate partner violence

A key question facing researchers of intimate partner violence is how the real-life contexts of victims’lives should affect state policy. The bulk of recently adopted and much touted criminal justice reforms have taken the form of relatively inflexible, one-size-fits-all mandatory responses focused on counseling, restraining, and punishing batterers. Even the protection order system relies far more heavily on batterer treat-ment programs than on victim support to prevent future violence. Together, these reforms have largely sacrificed the contextualized, woman-centered focus from which the antidomestic violence movement originated. Recently, however, a small body of research has emerged indicating that responding flexibly to victims ’ needs and providing them with advocacy and broad social support could be a more success-ful strategy for keeping women safe. These data highlight the importance of expand-ing victim-centered resources and reincorporating a particularized perspective into current policy and practice. Development of this literature should guide future re-form efforts