“…To counter this prevailing attitude, feminist anti-violence activists worked in the 1970s to establish a 'law and order' response in which IPA was taken seriously by the criminal justice system and penalized in the same manner as stranger assault (Richie 1996, Hirschel and Hutchinson 2003, Sokoloff and Dupont 2005. However, one unintended consequence of these efforts was the positioning of the criminal justice system as the primary means of redress for battered women (Richie 1996, Josephson 2002, Almeida and Lockard 2005. In effect, a norm developed in which battered women who were 'serious' about getting help were expected to utilize criminal justice resources (Ford 1983, Hoyle and Sanders 2000, Hirschel and Hutchinson 2003, including calling the police (Coulter et al 1999, Bowker 1984, Abel and Suh 1987, Hutchinson and Hirschel 1998 partners and prompt an escalation in violence as a means of revenge (Ford 1983, Fischer and Rose 1995, Erez and Belknap 1998, Zoellner et al 2000, Bui 2001, Krishnan et al 2001.…”