How Early Laws in America Contributed To the Legitimacy of Intimate Partner Violence

How Early Laws in America Contributed To the Legitimacy of Intimate Partner Violence

In the early 1800s, laws in America were largely based on English common law. This meant that they dealt with property rights and not personal rights. The focus was on what happens when a husband dies or abandons his wife. Therefore, the law did not consider it rape for a man to have sex with his wife without her consent if she is living apart from him under certain circumstances. However, this also meant that wives had very few legal protections against abuse by their husbands because there was no specific criminal charge of spousal rape, which is rape between people who are married or used to be married (in other words: partner violence). In 1887, after years of lobbying and activism by women's groups around the country, Congress passed legislation making it possible to prosecute a husband who raped his wife. Up until the 1970s, this was typically called "marital rape." By 1993, marital rape became recognized as a crime in all 50 states.

In the first half of the 19th century, some states passed laws, which prohibited a man from abusing or threatening his wife. However, it was not until the later part of that century that laws were passed to protect women more specifically. Massachusetts was the first state to pass a law called "An Act to Suppress Insult and Violence" in 1876, which made it possible for certain people who lived with one another or had once lived together to seek protection from abuse. This act gave women the right to apply for a restraining order and established criminal penalties for acts of abuse such as striking, shoving, or using abusive language against a woman. A year later, Michigan was the second state to establish laws protecting women from this type of violence. These states were part of a movement that aimed to reform family law.

In the 1870s, after a convention on domestic relations was held by a prominent women's rights group called the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), more states started passing similar types of laws. By 1910, twenty-seven states had passed legislation that changed the way family violence cases were treated in court or otherwise protected women from violence. Eventually, all states passed laws that gave women who were abused by their husbands, parents, children, etc., the right to seek court protection.

When it came to looking at cases of family violence in courts, there was very little understanding of the dynamics of violent relationships or what caused people with close ties to act violently toward one another. Judges often saw domestic violence cases simply as ways for frustrated wives to punish their husbands or used the idea that women are somehow naturally weaker than men to dismiss claims of abuse. If a woman was able to establish in court that she had been abused, it would then be up to her husband (the defendant) to show that he did not abuse her in order to avoid punishment. This meant that the defendant was basically considered guilty until proven innocent.

The road to making domestic violence a crime in America began with people like Martha Vickers, who wanted to punish men for abusing women. However, it does not mean that they saw any problem with abusive relationships. Rather, they believed that men were naturally violent and women were meant to be submissive. Therefore, the only way to reform family violence was by accepting this social norm of female submission. This led people like Martha Vickers to resent women who fought back, even with something as small as a slap or punch. This entire mindset was passed on to future generations who recognized domestic violence as a crime, which is why intimate partner violence was not treated the same way that other crimes are.

In conclusion, early laws in America contributed to the legitimacy of intimate partner violence by not only punishing the perpetrators but also by holding female victims accountable as well as projecting a social norm that women are more susceptible and submissive.