Domestic Violence Facts

Although domestic violence has been a problem for centuries, the battered women's movement has only come about in the past thirty years or so. The first shelter for battered women was opened in England in 1970 and the first battered woman's shelter in Arkansas was opened in the late 1970's. During the past thirty years, battered women and their advocates have struggled to make the criminal justice system, which historically has turned a blind eye to domestic violence, recognize domestic violence as a crime. In the process of putting together a service organization to support battered women, several theories of the dynamics of domestic violence were developed - concepts from which intervention strategies could be fashioned to effectively address domestic violence issues.

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