NY Broadens Domestic Violence Law

My fellow Blogspot writer at Model Minority sent me another news link this week. Apparently, New York State is renewing its policy against domestic violence to include couples and families who have been denied legal and judicial services by the state's narrow and exclusive definition of a legitimate relationship. Danny Hakim wrote for The New York Times, "Gov. David A. Paterson said on Wednesday that he would sign a major expansion of New York State’s domestic violence law to allow family court judges to issue civil protection orders against a far broader swath of alleged abusers... The new law would make it possible for people in dating relationships, heterosexual or gay, to seek protection from abusers in family court." Full article here.



And while we're on this topic, let me dig up a second article (and a much older one at that) from the archives of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.



In 1999, Jennifer Pozner, the founder of Women in Media & News, wrote a reaction to attitudes and implications in news coverage of federal research on domestic violence. Some of the studies in the public eye had produced results indicating that the rate of abuse committed by women is actually higher than that by men. Apparently, according to Pozner, Not All Domestic Violence Studies Are Created Equal: Researchers are "advocates" or "pioneers"--depending on what they find. Full article here. For Women In Media & News's more current work on media coverage of violence, see WIMN's Voices blog category on violence."