Law Professor: Don't Blame the Victims of Domestic Violence
April 8, 2013
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
In an op-ed in The Baltimore Sun, University of Baltimore School of Law Professor Leigh Goodmark urges the public to place the blame for domestic violence and homicides on those who are responsible: the perpetrators.
"What we should be asking instead is: What else should we be doing to teach our children that violence against their intimate partners is unacceptable? What else should we be doing to hold those who abuse their partners accountable for their actions? Should we be investing more in prevention?" writes Goodmark, who serves as director of the school's Clinical Education and the Family Law Clinic, and as co-director of its Center on Applied Feminism.
"While it's certainly worth attempting to address the holes in the criminal justice response, there are so many more questions that we need to ask if we really hope to make an impact on intimate partner abuse," Goodmark says in the op-ed, which was published March 26.
"Until we begin to focus on why these men chose to take the actions they did—instead of on what their partners failed to do—we will never stop domestic violence homicides."
Read the op-ed.