Reform in Kansas Domestic Violence Legislation

Abstract

Until recently, the problem of spouse abuse was largely neglected by the legal system. Although criminal assault and battery laws prohibited interspousal violence, attitudinal and structural barriers to both arrest and prosecution rendered the statutes largely ineffective. When battered women turned to the tort system for help, they found time-worn vestiges of the common law blocking meaningful civil relief. In the past several years, academic commentators and political groups have condemned the failure of the criminal justice system to respond effectively to spousal assault and have lobbied for new civil remedies.