Family Issues

Family Issues: Domestic Violence, Gender and Sexuality, Marriage and Divorce, and Unmarried Couples.

Last updated March 2009

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: 

ABA Commission on Domestic Violence 
http://www.abanet.org/domviol/home.html 
The ABA Commission on Domestic Violence seeks to mobilize the legal profession to provide access to justice and safety for victims of domestic violence. The website contains various online training materials, publications, and other resources are available to attorneys, as well as victims of domestic violence, under its publications and resources links. The site also offers domestic violence telephone numbers and provides individualized support to attorneys representing victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, including research assistance, sample practice tools, model pleadings, and access to experts in the field. 

Family Violence Prevention Fund 
http://endabuse.org/ 
Preventing violence in the home and in the community and helping those whose lives are devastated by violence is the work of the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF). The FVPF website offers public policy information and public education resources on domestic violence as it relates to women, children, and immigrants. 

Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse - University of Minnesota 
http://www.mincava.umn.edu/ 
The mission of MINCAVA is to support research, education, and access to related resources. MINCAVA’s project information is extensive and includes, among others, the MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse for up-to-date educational resources about all types of violence; Violence Against Women Online Resources for resource materials about effective interventions, services, and coordinated community responses to violence against women; The Link Project, a research, demonstration, and information dissemination project that reports collected information on children and domestic violence; and VAWnet (Applied Research Forum) which publishes online research, summaries, and discussions. A search engine and site index is available. 

National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence 
http://www.ncdsv.org/ 
The National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence assists professionals who work with victims and perpetrators of domestic and/or sexual violence. This website includes articles and research on a variety of abuse issues and future dates for training professionals to deal with abuse issues. 

US Department of Justice Violence Against Women Office 
http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/ 
The mission of the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is to provide for federal leadership to reduce violence against women, to administer justice for female victims of violence, and to strengthen services to all victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Online resources include Federal VAW Laws & Regulations, DOJ Research & Statistical Publications, press releases, information on interventions to stop violence against women for criminal justice practitioners, advocates, and social service professionals. 

GENDER AND SEXUALITY ISSUES: 

The Center for Reproductive Rights 
http://www.crlp.org/ 
The Center for Reproductive Rights is a non-profit legal advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and defending women reproductive rights worldwide. Informational resources include legislative and lobbying efforts in Washington to promote and ensure reproductive rights for all individuals, international and U.S. reproductive policy issues, legal news, press releases, online and print publications, as well as a FAQ section. 

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy 
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/djglp/ 
This online journal is an interdisciplinary publication devoted to discussion and consideration of gender issues in the context of law and public policy. Researchers can find the current issue of the journal as well as limited number of back issues. 

GayLawNet 
http://www.gaylawnet.com/ 
This site is dedicated to providing general information, news and resources concerning the law as it affects the global gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and intersex (GLBTI) community and the simplest access to a gay or lesbian (or gay or lesbian-friendly) lawyer. General offerings include a worldwide compilation of legal resources for gays, news archives, forms, legislation, and topical information regarding discrimination, law reform, privacy, immigration, HIV/AIDS, intellectual property, wills, and various other topics. 

Lesbian and Gay Law Notes 
http://www.le-gal.org/lesbian&.htm 
Lesbian/Gay Law Notes is a publication of the Lesbian and Gay Law Association Foundation of Greater New York. It tracks new legislation, reports on new court decisions, administrative rulings, executive actions, and highlights new publications of interest. Its focus is primarily on US law. 

National Center for Lesbian Rights Project 
http://www.nclrights.org/site/PageServer (partisan site) 
NCLR is a national, lesbian, feminist, non-profit legal organization. Its mission is to create a world in which every lesbian can live fully, free from discrimination. NCLR activities seek to advance the legal and human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals across the United States. The NCLR website contains publications, fact-sheets and other information on such issues as: families, parenting, and relationship recognition. 

National Women Law Center 
http://www.nwlc.org/index.cfm 
The Center educates the public about ways to make the law and public policies work for women and their families. The website includes information about poverty, child and family support, and reproductive rights. 

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE: 

Legal Information Institute at Cornell: Marriage 
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/marriage.html 
The LII offers topical overviews with hyperlinks to primary law on a variety of legal topics. An overview of marriage and divorce is available at the following links: 
Marriage http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/marriage.html 
Divorce http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/divorce.html 

Included with the topical narrative are hyperlinks to the full text of the laws as well as the full text of federal and New York cases. 

DivorceNet 
http://www.divorcenet.com 
DivorceNet® is the Internet’s largest divorce resource, offering state-specific articles, an online community and a nationwide directory of divorce lawyers, mediators and financial professionals Separate pages for each state provide a summary description of the state's divorce laws, with links to full- text statutes; selected articles; child support calculators; and links to related state resources.