Domestic Violence and the Law: A New York State-Centric Overview and Update By Dorchen Leidholdt and Lynn Beller ver the past three decades, domestic violence has gender-based discrimination, manifested not only in acts emerged as an urgent priority of public health of physical and sexual violence but also in abuse that takes Oprofessionals, government leaders, and human psychological, emotional, sexual, economic, legal, and rights proponents alike. Once misunderstood as the other forms. At the same time, there has been a growing product of individual pathology and minimized as "tri­ recognition of the severity of its harm to victims and their fling,"1 domestic violence is now recognized as a wide­ children, to extended families, and to communities, and spread, devastating societal problem, with consequences its cost to our economy and key institutions, especially that reach far beyond the family. During this time, our those addressing public health and criminal justice. understanding of domestic violence has evolved from a Despite groundbreaking advances in understanding focus on individual incidents of physical violence to an and policy that have led to a dramatically improved awareness that domestic violence is, first and foremost, response to victims in manycountries, including our own, a gender-based pattern of control and an acute form of domestic violence remains a significant problem world- DoRCHEN A. LEIDHOLDT is the Director of the Center for Battered Women's Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families in New York City. The largest legal ser­ vices program for domestic violence victims in the country, the Center provides legal representation to survivors of gender-based violence in family law, criminal, public benefits, housing, and immigration cases and advocates for policy and legislative changes that further the rights of gender violence sur­ vivors. Under Ms. Leidholdt's leadership, the Center has grown from two to 45 lawyers and 22 support staff members and has strengthened its advocacy efforts on behalf of underserved groups, including victims of human trafficking and members of New York City's immigrant, Orthodox Jewish, and LGBT communities. LYNN BELLER is a volunteer attorney at Sanctuary for Families and Executive Consultant to the Provost at Hunter College. 14 I May 2017 I NYSBA Journal .