Domestic-Violence Legislation, Annually by State 1995-2011

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Legislation addressing domestic violence enacted by U.S. states, by category of domestic-violence concern, annually 1995-2011.

U.S. state legislatures have frequently enacted domestic violence legislation. This workbook indicates by states and year for the years 1995-2011 the enactment of domestic violence legislation in particular categories. Enactment of domestic violence legislation are categorized as follows:

The annual Family Violence Legislative Update of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Family Violence Department, is the underlying source for these data. The dataset does not provides the specific laws enacted. It also does not describe the cumulative scope of domestic-violence law. It describes legislative action, rather than over-all domestic-violence law, in the given years.

The frequent enactment of domestic violence legislation is plausibly related to democratic failure in public discussion of domestic violence. Like frequently enacted, new federal criminal statutes, frequently enacted, new domestic-violence statutes reflect democratic incentives. Compared to federal criminal law, domestic-violence law is supported with much greater police, prosecutorial, and judicial resources across the U.S. Expansive criminalization of domestic violence has been central to the rise of mass incarceration.

Dataset sheets:

  • summary tables: Domestic-violence legislative enactments by state and year in categories criminal penalties and procedures, orders for protection (civil orders for protection), definitions, family and children, prevention and treatment; state counts by year by number of categories of domestic-violence legislation enacted; states by number of years in which enacted domestic-violence legislation
  • legislative acts: dataset of legislative acts concerning family violence (domestic violence), by act category and year, 1995-2011
  • defs & source: description of dataset of domestic-violence legislative acts

Related datasets:

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