Chuck Schumer: “When it was first enacted in 1994, the Violence Against Women Act signaled a sea change in our approach to the epidemic…”

“When it was first enacted in 1994, the Violence Against Women Act signaled a sea change in our approach to the epidemic of violence directed at women. Until the law, by and large it had been a dirty little secret that every night hundreds of women showed up at police precincts, battered and bruised, because they were beaten by their spouse or their boyfriend or whatever. All too often they were told by that law enforcement officer, who really had no education, no training, or no place to send the battered woman: Well, this is a domestic matter. Go home and straighten it out with your husband. So deep were the traditions ingrained that it was very hard to remove them.”