ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the more recent legal reforms across Europe, within a broader perspective that asks what kind of crime domestic violence is, and what women are seeking when they call upon legal systems for intervention and support. These wider issues provide a context within which to ask not only whether European countries are travelling in the same direction, but also how far recent reforms mesh with the needs and concerns of those they are meant to benefit. The tolerance of violence towards wives has been documented historically, and is best illustrated in the twentieth century by the marital rape exemption in most sexual offences law that remained the case in many European countries until the 1980S/90s. Kathleen Ferraro referred to irreconcilable differences when analysing the variation in the motives and resources of women, police and courts in the US state of Arizona.
