NCJ Number
96913
Journal
Vermont Law Review Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall 1981) Pages: 339-362
Date Published
1981
Length
24 pages
Annotation
United States society is permeated with structural violence that is both caused and perpetuated by legal protections for established property rights and relations. Only transforming institutions in accordance with genuinely democratic values can eliminate structural violence and thus prevent domestic violence.
Abstract
The privacy of the home offers a sanctuary for discharging feelings of hurt, insult, frustration, anger, and reactive violence that originate mostly outside the home but cannot be vented at their places of origin. Moreover, the home is a training ground where the young learn to live with society's structural violence. This analysis indicates that life in the United States now involves widespread frustration of people's intrinsic needs for access to basic goods and services, mutually caring human relations, participation in a productive process, security, and self- actualization. The Constitution accepts and protects the inequities of wealth and wealth-related rights. Therefore, prevention of structural and domestic violence is a political issue. The rights of children and women should be redefined through appropriate legislation, all forms of corporal punishment of children in the public domain should be outlawed, and the Equal Rights Amendment should be passed. Other measures to prevent violence include Federal legislation regarding the right to work and income guarantees, a health maintenance system, and a progressive, fair tax system. The essay contains 47 footnotes.