Even Walker's battered-woman defense is not as effective as it once was. Twenty years ago, she says, the stigma of being a battered woman was such that no woman would claim to be one unless she'd truly been battered. Today, though, the defense is employed in some questionable cases--and even if the woman truly was battered, the jury may wonder why she didn't take advantage of the myriad services that exist for her now.
Still, the advances are real--and undeniable. Twenty years ago a police officer couldn't arrest a man who hit his wife unless she signed a complaint. The onus of having the man arrested and prosecuted fell solely on her shoulders. But after DeGette's 1994 legislation, the burden was now on the system to see these cases through.
In the past, police would often hand out written summonses to misdemeanor domestic-violence suspects that would require them to appear in court days, even weeks, later. No more. Now suspects are hauled off to jail on the spot or as soon as the police catch up to them.
"I don't think we'll ever go back," Walker says. "When you think about the fact that this is a social-movement change, and twenty years has made this kind of difference. People don't tell 'When did you stop beating your wife?' jokes anymore."
"The difference between how it used to be and how it is, is day and night," says Pinkola Estes.
"It's like we picked up the rock and you see all the worms underneath," says Walker. "Once we took the lid off of it, we had no choice in a decent society but to do something about it."
But the worms keep turning.
DeGette is now a U.S. representative, serving in Schroeder's old seat. Last fall she managed to tack an amendment on to a banking bill prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating against survivors of domestic violence--a law that Colorado's legislature passed two years ago. According to a 1994 survey by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, half of the nation's largest insurers used domestic violence as a factor when deciding whether to issue insurance and in determining what rates are charged for both property and health insurance. "Everyone on the committee was shocked," DeGette says. "They couldn't believe it. Misunderstanding of domestic violence is so omnipresent."
At a convention of insurance officials this spring, DeGette outlined her anti-discrimination proposal (which passed the House in May). When she asked for questions from the floor, a man stood and said, "If I have a skydiving hobby, don't you think that could be an underwriting condition? What's the difference with domestic violence?"
"This is 1998," DeGette says, sighing, "and that was the first question. Skydiving is a lifestyle choice. Domestic violence is not a lifestyle choice."
Batterer and victim profiles, from the federal government's National Institute of Justice:
Incarcerated batterers who grew up living with both parents: 50 percent.
Incarcerated batterers who have lived in a foster home: 12 percent.
Incarcerated batterers who claim to have been physically or sexually abused themselves: 22 percent.
Incarcerated batterers who were the children of substance abusers: 31 percent.
Incarcerated batterers who have a family member who's also been incarcerated: 35 percent.
Women most likely to be victims of domestic violence are between 20 and 34 years of age, have not graduated from college, have annual family incomes under $10,000 and are divorced or separated.
Women in the U.S. who reported being physically abused by their spouse or partner in the previous year: 7 percent.
Domestic-violence victims attacked by a boyfriend or girlfriend: 51 percent.
Domestic-violence victims attacked by a spouse: 34 percent.
Domestic-violence victims attacked by a former spouse: 15 percent.
Pregnant women in public and private clinics who are victims of domestic violence: between 8 and 26 percent.
Battered women who suffer abuse during pregnancy: between 25 and 45 percent.
