ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the landscape of the current policy response to different types of couple conflict, and to the separate but related issue of domestic violence. Couple conflict can also include serious verbal abuse and intimidation, and acts of physical violence ranging from, pushing, slapping, and shoving to hitting with objects and weapons, which may result in physical injury and sometimes death. Policy officials and advocates have paid most attention and allocated the most funds to the domestic violence type of couple violence. Domestic violence programs and policies-these are currently receiving even more attention in the policy community as a result of the new requirements of welfare reform and tightening of child support enforcement. Violence against women is primarily partner violence. The first federal grants program, The Family Violence Prevention Act, was enacted in 1984, followed 10 years later in 1994 by the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which was part of the huge Omnibus Crime Act.
