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Same Violence, Same Sex, Different Standard: An Examination of Same-Sex Domestic Violence and the Use of Expert Testimony on Battered Woman\u27s Syndrome in Same-Sex Domestic Violence Cases
No full text1971 marked the genesis of the Battered Women\u27s Movement and, since then, remarkable strides have been made to address and combat domestic violence. Today, for example, a myriad of domestic abuse agencies offer an array of services, including: 24-hour hotlines; counseling; safe houses; transitional living; children\u27s services; life skills education; professional training; batterers intervention; and legal assistance These strides, however, cannot extirpate two ugly truths: domestic violence still pervades our society, and it afflicts more than those in heterosexual relationships. Anecdotal evidence and a growing body of literature indicate that domestic abuse is not unique to heterosexuals, but occurs in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) relationships, as well. While it is true that heterosexual women are most often likely to experience intimate violence from their male partners, empirical data now suggests that those in same-sex relationships are proportionally as likely to experience violence in their relationships. Moreover, the patterns, modes, and effects of same-sex domestic violence appear to be virtually identical to heterosexual domestic violence. The following stories reflect these similarities. In fact, by replacing the abuser\u27s name with the letter X, one becomes pressed in determining the contours of the abusive relationship: We started fighting a lot. X got mad at ridiculous things and then I discovered that X was cheating on me. I confronted X and asked X to leave. Instead of leaving, X hit me and said, \u27Don\u27t you ever tell me to leave this house!\u27 The next day, X apologized and promised [to] never hit me again. For the next two years, X beat me up on several occasions and finally broke my jaw. A week later, X knocked me into the wall so hard that I needed stitches in my head. I got a restraining order against X the following day. X called to apologize three days after it had been served. X was being so nice that I let X back into the house and, as soon as X was inside, X became abusive again. X and I were living together maybe three days when we were in the bedroom and X became angry and hit me .... X smashed my guitar. X kicked and stomped my dog out the door. X would rip off my clothes. X would kick and punch me. I often got black and blue. I could never understand what triggered it. Every little frustration or problem seemed to immediately explode into an exaggerated fit of temper .... These episodes could go anywhere from one hour to four hours, depending upon how much energy X had. Admittedly, these stories sound like the all too familiar accounts of domestic abuse inflicted upon women by men; but, surprisingly, both of these stories are told by gay and lesbian domestic violence survivors, respectively. Part II of this Article examines domestic violence in samesex relationships, its prevalence, similarities, and differences to domestic violence in heterosexual relationships, and the issues that those affected by same-sex domestic violence face. Part III focuses on Battered Woman\u27s Syndrome expert testimony and its role in same-sex domestic violence cases. Finally, Part IV suggests that expert testimony must adapt to today\u27s self-defense cases involving victims of same sex violence
Front Matter
No full textFront Matter includes Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for St. Thomas Law Review Volume 24, Issue 2, Spring 2012
Trading in Humans: A New Haven Perspective
No full textHuman trafficking is the third largest criminal industry after the drug trade and arms dealing, and it is also one of the fastest growing international crimes. Its victims are exploited in sex trafficking in large urban areas, vacation and tourist spots, near military bases; in labour trafficking fueled by the demand for unskilled labour, present in seasonal agriculture, tourism, construction, fisheries and domestic servitude. This modern-day slavery is an affront to the dignity of the human being and a violation of core human rights. It is also a crime against the state that undermines labour relations, health, safety and security of every country it touches as a source of victims, place of transit or final destination. Concerted efforts locally and globally are necessary to combat it. Through the lens of the New Haven School of Thought, also known as Policy-Oriented Jurisprudence, this article analyses the problem of trafficking in human beings, presents the decisions made to address it, and develops recommendations to improve solutions
Back to Freedom: From Surviving to Thriving - A Panel Discussion
No full textPanel discussion by Ana Isabel Vallejo, Esq., Ms. Simone Celestin, and Sabrina Salomon, Esq., entitled Back to Freedom: From Surviving to Thriving
What Must We Hide: The Ethics of Privacy and the Ethos of Disclosure
No full textWe live in an era of personal revelation. We are preoccupied by seeking, gathering, and disclosing information about others and ourselves. In the age of revelation, individuals and enterprises are fond of ferreting out what is buried away. We are fond of broadcasting what we know, think, do, and feel; and we are motivated by business and pleasure because we care about friendship, kinship, health, wealth, education, politics, justice, and culture. A lot of this has to do with technology, of course. We live at a historical moment characterized by the wide availability of multiple modes of communication and stored data, easily and frequently accessed. Our communications are capable of disclosing breadths and depths of personal, personally identifiable, and sensitive information to many people rapidly. In this era of revelation-dominated by portable electronics, internet social media, reality television, and traditional talk radio-many of us are losing our sense of privacy, our taste for privacy, and our willingness to respect privacy. Is this set of losses a bad thing? If it is a bad thing, what can be done about it? My reflections on these questions begin with a series of diverse examples from the past several years. The examples illustrate the emergent ethos of our revelatory era. The first and second examples portray voluntary self-revelation for amusement and monetary gain; a third and fourth example depict revelations concerning others, motivated by a desire for amusement in one case and geopolitical justice in another
Pope Pius XI\u27s Extraordinary - but Undeserved - Praise of the American Supreme Court
No full textIn 2012, Roman Catholic institutions in the United States were challenged by a new law that many American Catholics deemed not only unjust, but also unconstitutional. In February, the Secretary of Health and Human Services adopted a regulation that generally required employers, including many Catholic institutions, to provide artificial contraception as part of any offered healthcare plan. Believing such regulation to be an infringement of religious liberty, various Catholic dioceses and other Catholic organizations filed lawsuits in federal court seeking to enjoin the enforcement of the regulation Ninety years ago, in 1922, American Catholics met a similar challenge. In the fall elections of that year, Oregon voters approved a state law compelling all the state\u27s children to attend public schools. The law would have effectively closed all the Catholic grade schools (and other private schools) in the state. Emboldened by their success in Oregon, proponents of compulsory public education initiated efforts to adopt similar laws in other states. In response, Catholics nationwide mobilized; and in Oregon, with the support of the National Catholic Welfare Council, the Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to enjoin the law\u27s enforcement. The lawsuit was successful, and the federal district court granted the injunction. On appeal, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Supreme Court unanimously concluded that the Constitution prohibited the states from compelling students to attend only public schools. The law, the Court affirmed, interfered with the right of parents to direct the education of their own children, and the Sisters\u27 right to teach. American Catholics rejoiced in the victory. Even the Bishop of Rome joined in the celebration. In his 1929 encyclical letter on Christian education, Divini Illius Magistri, Pope Pius XI explicitly praised the Supreme Court\u27s decision. In vindicating the right and duty of parents to direct their own children\u27s education, he cited, as supporting authorities, not only Thomas Aquinas, Canon Law, and papal encyclicals, but also the United States Supreme Court: This incontestable right of the family has at various times been recognized by nations anxious to respect the natural law in their civil enactments. Thus, to give one recent example, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, in a decision on an important controversy, declared that it is not in the competence of the State to fix any uniform standard of education by forcing children to receive instruction exclusively in public schools, and it bases its decision on the natural law: the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to educate him and prepare him for the fulfillment of his obligations. The important controversy mentioned here was Pierce v. Society of Sisters
Strategic Equality and the Failure of Affirmative Action Law
No full textThe changing standards used by the federal courts to adjudicate affirmative action in employment and post-secondary education, driven more by changes in personnel than by any real cultural or societal shifts, now pose a threat to US democracy. The case of Fisher v. University of Texas, recently granted review, opens anew the 2003 Supreme Court ruling that universities may consider race for the purpose of achieving diversity, if that diversity satisfies the strict scrutiny standard requiring a compelling governmental interest in programs narrowly tailored to meet whatever government interest may be involved. The real question should, of course, center on whether the diversity standard adequately meets the political and economic demands the USA seems certain to face in the coming century, as people of color move from minority to majority status. Drawing upon data from the General Social Survey, the Current Population Survey, and the National Center for Education Statistics, I contend here that diversity alone is inadequate because it is non-remedial and leaves in place both white privilege and Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American disadvantage
Ensuring Decent Work for Domestic Workers: An Integral Approach to the Prevention of Labor Trafficking
No full textThe first section of this article situates labor trafficking, including domestic servitude, on a continuum of labor abuse and exploitation, by way of a discussion of the Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Here the paper cautions against the equal and opposite dangers of categorizing all domestic labor abuse as domestic servitude on the one hand, and ignoring less severe forms of labor abuse, on the other. Moreover, it argues that the strict enforcement of ILO standards aimed at reducing labor abuse and exploitation is necessary to prevent involuntary labor, including involuntary labor in the home. The second section examines the evidence of domestic servitude in the United States. For the purposes of this article, the most striking aspect of the available evidence is what it reveals about the connection between domestic servitude, as a form of labor trafficking in general, and poverty, migration ethnicity, and gender. This analysis supports the inference that discrimination explains the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment human traffickers inflict on those they enslave. The third section analyzes discrimination under three aspects: the impact of discrimination on human dignity and rights; state obligations under international human rights law to eliminate all forms of discrimination; and the mentality of those who abuse and exploit others. This discussion demonstrates the necessity to modify social and cultural patterns of conduct and customary practices that perpetuate racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination, thereby leading to serious violations of human dignity and fundamental rights. The final section frames the contours of an integral approach to the prevention of domestic servitude and other forms of labor trafficking
U.S. Trafficking Policy and the J-1 Visa Program : The State Department\u27s Challenge from within
No full textThis article will review two key J-1 categories of the Exchange Visitor Program-the Au Pair and Summer Work Travel (SWT) programs-and compare the legal protections afforded by them to those provided under the H-2A and H-2B visas, two temporary worker visa programs regulated by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL).7 The article will then discuss the J-1 program within the context of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA),8 a federal law passed in 2000, which significantly altered the legal definitions and penalties associated with human trafficking and conferred additional responsibilities to the State Department to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts. The authors will argue that the State Department\u27s management of the J-1 visa program compromises its anti-human trafficking role, both at the federal level, as the agency responsible for coordinating U.S. anti-trafficking activities, and at the international level, in monitoring and critiquing other nations on their efforts to stem human trafficking. The article concludes with recommendations for reform to the J-1 program
Equality, Procedural Justice, and the World Trade Organization
No full textFirst, in Part II we describe equality as a norm of distributive justice within domestic political contexts. We consider and reject the possibility of exporting domestic egalitarian principles to international legal institutions. Second, in Part III we assemble materials for a theory of international egalitarian justice. We hold that the variety of international contexts favors a procedural rather than substantive approach. Third, in Part IV we develop a set of procedural egalitarian norms for satisfying justice within the WTO. Finally, in Part V we consider three policy level reforms that would help to secure the procedural protections required by justice. Taken together, we hope that this argument contributes to the theorization of global justice and helps to demonstrate the possibility of building a bridge from egalitarian principles to concrete reforms in international institutions