NEWS
MONETARY PENALTY FOR WIFE BATTERER
PRNewswire.
Detroit.
A divorce ruling in Michigan, USA has ordered a wife batterer to pay his former wife $150 000 in damages for spousal abuse. When it was established that the marital assets were insufficient to pay this judgement, the man was ordered to pay his former wife alimony for life, 100% of the marital estate including his pension and $401 000.

Women's rights advocates feel that the decision gives women hope. Many battered women are forced to leave their homes, leaving behind all of their belongings when they escape. However, there is still a call for wife batterers to be gaoled.

Approximately four million American women suffer serious assaults by their partners each year. A study released by the National Institute of Justice and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in July 2000 found that violence against women is often accompanied by emotionally abusive conduct, confirming that violence against women is part a "systematic pattern of control and dominance". Furthermore, the Department of Justice says that children are 1500 times more likely to be abused in homes where spousal abuse occurs.

October 16, 2000.

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