Category: law

One Simple Idea That Could Reduce Domestic Violence

A report released Tuesday is proposing a simple way to reduce domestic violence: Give victims free lawyers.

Lawyers are expensive, and women who need them often can’t afford them. Without legal counsel, it can be harder for women to get protective orders, leave their abusive partners and escape the cycle of violence. And women stuck in violent relationships tend to miss work because of injury or rack up hospital bills they can never pay off, according to the report by The Institute for Policy Integrity, a nonpartisan think tank.

With one in four women in the U.S. estimated to become victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime, this dynamic has major economic repercussions. As the report notes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that domestic violence costs the U.S. at least $9.05 billion each year.

Providing free or subsidized legal representation to victims, the report concludes, may reduce domestic violence and would be cost-effective as it would likely result in lower associated health care and legal costs.

HuffPost

When Domestic Violence Victims Are Imprisoned for Their Abusers’ Crimes

Lindley’s story anchors BuzzFeed’s sweeping investigation into how some state laws are attempting to protect children from domestic abuse by penalizing other victims in the household—largely, women. Campbell uncovered at least 28 similar cases in 11 states, where mothers have been “sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to prevent their partners from harming their children.” In each case, “there was evidence the mother herself had been battered by the man.”

Slate

The Great Paper Caper

Years of running drugs and boosting cars left FRANK BOURASSA thinking: There’s got to be an easier way to earn a dishonest living. That’s when he nerved up the idea to make his fortune. (Literally.) Which is how Frank became the most prolific counterfeiter in American history—a guy with more than $200 million in nearly flawless fake twenties stuffed in a garage. How he got away with it all, well, that’s even crazier.
GQ