Should Domestic Violence be Decriminalized?

Professor of Law Leigh Goodmark will present " Should Domestic Violence be Decriminalized?" during Vermont Law School’s annual Sterry R. Waterman Lecture at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, in Chase Community Center at VLS. The lecture is free and open to the public and press.

In 1984, the United States started down a path towards the criminalization of domestic violence that it has steadfastly continued to follow. The turn to the criminal legal system to address domestic violence coincided with the rise of mass incarceration in the United States. Levels of incarceration have increased by five times during the life of the anti-domestic violence movement. The United States incarcerates approximately 2.2 million people, with another 5 million under the scrutiny of parole and probation officers. While the criminalization of domestic violence did not have “a significant causal role” in the increase in mass incarceration in the United States, scholars have argued that the turn to criminal law to address domestic violence has contributed to the phenomenon of mass incarceration. Given the current focus on overcriminalization and decreasing mass incarceration, the time may be ripe to consider alternatives to criminalization of intimate partner violence. Accordingly, this talk asks the question, “Should domestic violence be decriminalized?”

For more information, contact Kim Evans, kevans@vermontlaw.edu or 802.831.1225

The Sterry R. Waterman Lecture is named in honor of the late senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a former president of the Vermont Law School Board of Trustees. For more information about the lecture and other VLS events, visit www.vermontlaw.edu/news-and-events.

VLS Annual Sterry R. Waterman Lecture with Leigh Goodmark: Should Domestic Violence be Decriminalized?