Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

The Evolution of the Justice System’s Response
to Domestic Violence in New York State
The anti-domestic violence movement began in the 1970s as a grass-roots
feminist response focusing on creating emergency shelters for women and
children fleeing violent family members. Immediate safety has been and always
must be the first priority of the movement. However, activists in the field
quickly saw that a short stay in an emergency shelter would not make battered
women and their children safe in the long-run, nor bring their abusers to justice.
Advocates increasingly turned to the civil and criminal justice systems to hold
abusers accountable, create longer-term safety strategies for victims, and
demand economic justice.
Although steps were taken over the years, it was not until the 1990s that
the anti-domestic violence movement produced a sea change in the way police,
prosecutors, lawyers, legislators and the courts responded to cases of domestic
violence. The last decade of the twentieth century produced a mature legal
specialty in the area of domestic violence, the emergence of lawyers specializing
in the field, and a justice system that became responsive to the issues and needs
of these victims and their children.
The progress that has been made in the last decade is impressive. However,
many barriers to safety and justice remain for battered women and their children.
The Progress
by Julie A. Domonkos
For New York State, 1994 was a watershed year. The New York State
Legislature passed the Family Protection and Domestic Violence Intervention
Act, 1 an omnibus bill that revolutionized the New York justice system’s response
to cases of family violence. The Act eliminated an anomaly of New York law
1