Criminalizing Violent Behavior in Neighborhood Settings
A Long Walk on Eggshells: 35 Years and 500 Miles I attended high school in Dayton, Ohio, but now live in a city in the State of Virginia, a distance door-to-door of about 500 miles. My particular location in Virginia does not seem to matter, as I have been told my experience would be the same anywhere in the state. The main problem appears to be the Virginia criminal misdemeanor code, and its tolerance of threatening behavior towards women. My “long walk” started as a 16-year-old girl in the mid-1980’s, when I dated a violent young man. He was aggressive, irrational, selfish, and unpredictable. At the time, he was able to isolate me from my friends and family, and I thought this was an experience unique to me. I later learned that being a victim of domestic violence is a common experience for many women, then and now. Back in the 1980’s, I absorbed and adopted the norms of the time, which reflected a lack of societal awareness and education abou...