Spouse-Battering: Adopting The Law In New York City
Spouse-battering is more commonly known as Battered Spouse Syndrome. It is the outcome of repeatedly violence such as choking, shoving, hitting, and sexual abuse done by the hands of the spouses or people living together. In a relationship, women fall victims of spouse-battering, however, it is not always women who get battered; in recent years, men have also filed cases against their spouse or partner. In order to pass this legislation dealing with spouse- battering in New York we must look at all the possible outcomes and why we need this law.
Laws are a fundamental need for the safety of individuals. Women feel that this law will make them feel safer and will be a step closer to end violence. In order to do that, feminist groups want the police to arrest the assaulters. They think that the police are not dealing with the problem properly. If they are to arrest the assaulter, then the assaulters would think twice next time because there will be consequences for their actions. Although, there is a dispute that the law can be discriminatory. This group argues that if people want true equality than the police must arrest the assaulter no matter what their gender is. While another group argue that the new law may enact discrimination because the police may use this law to arrest people for causes other than spouse abuse. Now that we have seen all the sides that we are dealing with for the new legislation, it is time that we examine why this law might have taken place.
Spouse abuse is a common thing in every neighborhood and it is mostly women who are the victims. When a law usually takes place that means that there have been multiple complains or protest in order for individuals to be heard. According to National Statistics Domestic Violence, an average of 20 people per minute are abused by a partner or spouse. “During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men. ” When so many people in the country are victims of spousal abuse, it is time for something to be done about it. Many of these victims are left scarred and unable to move on, with the help of this law they will know that justice has been served. Another reason why this law could have taken place is because when women turn to help they often feel like the law cannot help them. According to Nielsen (2009), “white women and people of color are reluctant to turn to law for help, either because they do not believe the law can help them or because they fear the law would be used against them. ” Many women do not feel like they would get anything out of reporting abuse or they have a fear of it being used against them. Feminist groups saw that law enforcements had no effect on the assaulter which is why they went out and stressed this law. People will not be scared to report spousal abuse when they know that something is going to be done about it.
If New York City were to adopt this law, for a short period of time the law would affect people positively. The short-term effects of the law would put a hold to spousal-abuse because they do not know what they will be charged with or what will happen to them. People will be calling the police much more to report their spouse. There are people out there that will misuse this law, they will call the police whenever their spouse isn’t acknowledging them or showering them with love and gifts. I think there will be gender discrimination because the police will most likely arrest male assaulters but let the female ones go. They won’t take men as seriously as women, which would give females an advantage. Women can also misuse the law to get men to do what they want knowing that they can call the police and they will take her word over his. This would lead to the long-term effect of the law, police will most likely respond less or take longer to respond to these calls. Especially if it is one of the houses-holds that call often to report spousal abuse.
Another long-term effect could be what one of the groups worried about. The police using the law as an excuse to arrest people who look suspicious. I think that this law made is easier for the police to discriminate against people based on their looks or previous criminal records. Neighborhoods also have a part in how affective the laws are; poor neighborhoods do not get that same police services as a rich neighborhood. In rich neighborhoods the police are likely to respond faster however, rich assaulters can ask for favors to avoid getting arrested. This will allow them to repeatedly abuse their spouse without any consequences. In poor neighborhoods, the police do not fulfill the people’s satisfactions the same way they do for the rich neighborhoods. The police are more likely to use the law to arrest people for other crimes other than spouse-battering such as drug abuse. In order to assess the impact of the law if adopted into New York City, we must look at different components. We will face obstacles to the assessment of the law because there are many things that can affect the evaluation.
The obstacles to the assessment are that the impacts are different based on neighborhoods, social status/class, race, and culture. Each neighborhood views laws differently; for example, an immigrant couple from a poor neighborhood will most likely follow the law and have a fear of being arrested built in them. Which would prevent them from committing spousal abuse. Meanwhile, an American couple from a different neighborhood might not give the law much importance and would continue spouse-battering. In order to overcome this crisis that will impact the assessment, we must see the calls made in each neighborhood regarding spouse-battering the first time; then see if there were any calls from the same household the second time. This would tell us if the enforcement of the law had any impact on couples or on the calls made to the police regarding spouse-battering from different neighborhoods. It will also tell us if arresting the assaulter has made any difference in the couple’s lives.
Social status and social class can also have an effect on the assessment of the impact of the law. Everything comes back to the amount of money an induvial because the ones with money have power. They are able to get away with spouse-battering because they have connections, or they make donations to prevent getting arrested. In order to overcome this obstacle, we need to look through the cases filed against rich spouses or partners and see if they were actually arrested or let off with a warning. This would help tell us if the law is affective in ending spouse-battering.
Another obstacle that we will face when assessing the law is race, there will be race discrimination. We have seen the arising tension between police officers and the different races. This law can allow racial discrimination and allow the police to charge the assaulter with crimes other than spouse-battering. There will be a lot more African Americans in the jails. This obstacle is hard to overcome because we cannot change the minds of racists officers. The last obstacle that I think makes it hard to conduct the study is culture. In the Indian, Pakistani, and Bengali culture, men are superior than women and have the right to beat their wife into “submission”. Those who are immigrants from these countries find it hard to accommodate according to the American culture and laws. That culture allows men to get away with spouse-battering. There has been a case before when an intelligent women Neha Rastogi, who worked at Apple with Steve Jobs was abused by her husband for ten years. Her husband, Abhishek Gattani, is the CEO Silicon Valley. Her culture prevented her from speaking up in the beginning. Even though, her husband was beating her up in public and it was recorded. She didn’t file a case against him because she hoped he would stop, and she would have a family. According to the article published in the Daily Beast (2017), “despite her recordings recording some of that abuse, the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office let him plead no contest to offensive touching and felony accessory after the fact and agreed to a deal in which he would serve less than two full weeks in jail. ” The cultural obstacle is one that is tough to overcome because each culture has different values and it is impossible to see the impacts of the law on each culture.
One thing I know for sure is that the men from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh do not stop spouse-battering unless they have been punished for their crimes. This law is beneficial for the people being assaulted in marriages or relationships because it allows them to report it knowing something is being done about it. It also installs a fear of being arrested again in the assaulter, which would prevent them from assaulting their partner again. Some laws will not have any effect on the assaulter if they know that they will be let out of jail. However, the passing of this law also brings other problems such as discrimination and arrests of suspicious people for reasons other than spouse-battering.
