A Corpus-Based Study on the Representation of Children in Domestic Violence Statutory Law

BACKGROUNDDomestic violence (DV) is a worldwide phenomenon that has long-lasting psychological impacts on children. Improved legal protections are critical for children living with DV.OBJECTIVEDetermine the differences between the laws of the states with the highest and lowest rates of DV. Provide key considerations for state congress representatives and legal advocates to prompt reform of DV laws.METHODSA corpus linguistic design was employed to analyze the keyness and collocation of state specific laws in the United States (U.S.), to determine the relationship between legal language and varied rates of DV. Antconc and #Lancsbox were used to assess the frequency of words and the language related to the key terms of “child*”, “juvenile*”, and “minors” in the laws of the 10 states with the highest and lowest rates of DV.RESULTSWords occurring with greater frequency in the high DV corpus were adverse and consumer and those with less frequency were bureau and shotgun. In high DV states the strongest collocate for “child*” was custody, for “juvenile* was detention, and for “minors” was dependent. In low DV states the strongest collocate for “child*” was custody, for “juvenile* was relations, and for “minors” was visitation.CONCLUSIONThe laws in high DV states tended to primarily focus on physical acts of violence, whereas lower DV states had broader definitions of DV and included directives to provide support for victims. Notably, outcomes indicate a need for legal reform in both subsets of laws examined with respect to the protection of children