Stopping the Violence: Mandatory Arrest and Police Tort Liability for Failure to Assist Battered Women

t Associate Professor of Law, University of Oregon School of Law. I want to thank Leslie Harris and Lani Roberts for their advice on earlier drafts and Kim Chaput, Cyndee Haines, Ellen Adler and Mary Duhaime for their excellent research help in preparation of this Article. Finally, I want to thank all the battered women's advocates who provided me with information about what really happens to battered women. I US Department of Justice, Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence, Final Report 104 (Sept 1984) ("Final Report"). 2 Tracy Chapman, "Behind the Wall," from the album Tracy Chapman (Elektra/Asylum Records, 1988). 3 Robin Morgan, Sisterhood is Global 703 (Anchor/Doubleday, 1984) (50-70% of married women experience battering during marriage); Christine A. Littleton, Women's Experience and the Problem of Transition: Perspectives on Male Battering of Women, 1989 U Chi Legal F 23, 34 ("Over a million and a half women are beaten each year by the men they love"). See also Catharine A. MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified 24 (Harv U Press, 1987). See generally Donald G. Dutton, The Domestic Assault of Women: Psychological and Criminal Justice Perspectives 2-9 (Allyn and Bacon, 1988).