The Violence Against Women Act passed today. This is good news for all of the police training, shelters, counseling programs, funding for legal representation for victims, (and that is an HUGE problem!!) and laws connected to the Violence Against Women Act. Sadly, the subject of children caught in custody battles wherein the issue of domestic violence has manifested is still not properly addressed. Judges still seem to think that a violent thug will only have one victim over the course of his violent career, and thereby almost blame the victim! A family law court judge in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia actually tried to "overlook" the issue of domestic violence in rulings in a certain case, but since the thug involved had already been found guilty of domestic violence in criminal court, this judge was unable to ignore the guilty verdict when rulings were made. Without the Violence Against Women Act, she might have gotton away with it.
One hundred and thirty-eight Republicans did not think that protection under the law in all phases of defusing an ongoing domestic violence situation was "fiscally responsible", and those same Republicans also did not think that those most likely to become victims of domestic violence in their states would have any value as votors, and probably not as human beings, either. Kansas lawmakers, of course,
voted against it. Their position on this is probably that it's more cost effective from an economic standpoint to bury a domestic violence victim than it is to help her.
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