by Judith Resnik

About the author: Judith Resnik is the Arthur Litman Professor of Law at Yale Law School and coauthor of an amicus brief supporting the constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act.

Why, when the issue is violence against women, do some people talk about sex? While some violence directed at women is sexualized, calling it “sex” softens the brutality, implicates the victim as possibly an inciter or a participant, and offers the perpetrator the justification of lust.

Think also about the phrase “domestic violence.” True, a good deal of violence against women does occur inside houses, but the coziness assumed to reside within the “domestic” stands in contrast to the cruelty of violence imposed by someone so close.

Linking violence against...