Enjoining Coercion: Squaring Civil Protection Orders with the Reality of Domestic Abuse

Abstract

Domestic abuse afflicts families across eras, cultures, and economic strata. Since the 1960s, increasing awareness, study, and advocacy have generated political, social, and legal innovations to confront violence within intimate relationships. As a result, every state now has adopted civil protection systems for victims of domestic abuse. These laws typically provide emergency injunctive relief to extricate a person from a dangerous relationship and to prevent future abuse. Defining “abuse” is central to civil protection regimes because a court may not issue a protection order without finding that abuse has occurred or is likely to occur. Most civil protection statues limit their scope by defining abuse as physical violence or by referencing criminal laws with elements of physical violence. These regimes require a predicate episode of physical violence or an imminent, tangible threat of violence before providing relief, which is usually an injunction against continued violence.