Inequality across State Lines
How Policymakers Have Failed Domestic Violence Victims in the United States

This book identifies specific factors that explain why domestic violence policies in the United States fail to keep women safe.

Kaitlin Sidorsky (Author), Wendy J. Schiller (Author)

9781009279116, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 March 2023

262 pages
23.6 x 15.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.51 kg

'Why do state and national policies fail to protect women from domestic violence? With insightful analysis, Sidorsky and Schiller implicate uneven state reactions to federal laws, gun rights trumping domestic violence concerns, and a system of federalism that exacerbates inequality. Their compelling call to action offers hope toward a path forward.' Craig Volden, University of Virginia

In the United States, one in four women will be victims of domestic violence each year. Despite the passage of federal legislation on violence against women beginning in 1994, differences persist across states in how domestic violence is addressed. Inequality Across State Lines illuminates the epidemic of domestic violence in the U.S. through the lens of politics, policy adoption, and policy implementation. Combining narrative case studies, surveys, and data analysis, the book discusses the specific factors that explain why U.S. domestic violence politics and policies have failed to keep women safe at all income levels, and across racial and ethnic lines. The book argues that the issue of domestic violence, and how government responds to it, raises fundamental questions of justice; gender and racial equality; and the limited efficacy of a state-by-state and even town-by-town response. This book goes beyond revealing the vast differences in how states respond to domestic violence, by offering pathways to reform.

1. Domestic violence and gender inequality
2. Federal action on domestic violence
3. Policymaking in the states: domestic violence statutes
4. Explaining and predicting the adoption of state domestic violence gun laws
5. The view from the courtroom: inconsistent implementation of domestic violence policy at the local level
6. The Costs of inequality in domestic violence policies
7. Pathways for improving women's human security
References
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Gender & the law [LAQG], Political science & theory [JPA], Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Domestic violence [JFFE3]