WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. Some of the news stories about Tiger Woods have raised issues about domestic violence by women. This Slate article about Tiger discusses the issue and points out that: “Now, women are arrested in about 20 percent of domestic-violence cases.” All of which reminds me of one of the war stories my father used to tell at the dinner table about when he was in private practice in Du Page County, Illinois back in the 1930’s. He was at the court house in Wheaton one day, and as he was leaving he noticed that the next case on the docket was for divorce. What was unusual was that the husband was about three times as big as the wife—over 300 pounds versus under 100— but it was the husband who was suing for the divorce. And my father pointed out that Illinois required a strong showing of actual physical cruelty to warrant a divorce for cruelty. My father couldn’t stay for the proceedings, but the next time he was back at the court house, he asked a clerk about the divorce. Divorce granted. How could that be? The testimony began by describing the husband reaching for a second helping and the wife nailing his hand to the table with the carving fork.