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Abstract: 

Evan Stark, in “Do Mandated State Interventions Contribute to Woman Battering,” 5 DVR 65 (2000), raises some important issues regarding mandatory state interventions in domestic violence cases. In the process of arguing on behalf of these policies, he constructively reviews my work and challenges my position. I have consistently argued that blanket policies mandating physicians, police officers, and prosecutors to report, arrest, and prosecute batterers when the battered woman does not consent to such action are inappropriate in therapeutic and legal terms and may be racist in their effect. In this article, the author elaborates, clarifies, and defends her position.

Keywords: Casey Gwinn & Anne O’Dell, “Stopping the Violence: The Role of the Police Officer and the Prosecutor,”

Affiliations:  1: New York University.