Some Thoughts About Domestic Violence Prosecution

The heart wants what the heart wants

My first experience with domestic abuse came when I was a child. Hearing my mother scream at my father, demeaning him, while he declined to respond in any sort of significant way, well…it just broke my heart.

I next witnessed domestic abuse in my twenties, while visiting a friend whose partner, when drunk, would yell at him, hurling insult after insult. It would happen again, this time with a different friend, whose husband yelled at her and called her a moron…right in front of me.

It was a shock to my system then, and something I’ve never quite gotten over.

As a prosecutor, realizing that this kind of behavior could escalate to actual violence—with injury and death resulting—stirred in me a sort of desperate desire to hold those offenders accountable.

Easier said than done…