I. INTRODUCTION Historically, "intimate partner violence" (IPV) was not considered a serious issue for the criminal justice system. (1) Instead, IPV was seen primarily as a private, family matter. (2) Participants in the criminal justice system, including police officers, prosecutors, and judges, believed "that the importance of protecting families from interference outweighed the importance of protecting women from abuse." (3) This made it particularly difficult for IPV victims to obtain legal assistance. (4) It was not until the late 1970s that IPV began to become widely recognized as a true crime. (5) By the mid-1980s, state legislatures had begun to make significant changes to IPV law due in large part to an influential study commonly referred to as the "Minneapolis Experiment." (6) The Minneapolis Experiment reported that IPV offenders are less likely to recidivate if they are arrested than if they are merely counseled by police or asked to leave the premises where the incident occurred. (7) Unfortunately, these changes did not noticeably alter judicial perspectives or approaches to IPV. (8)
