Informing low-risk drinking guidelines: a secondary, cross-sectional data analysis of alcohol use and health utility.

Domestic violence (DV) statutes in the United States have expanded substantially over the past several decades, reflecting growing recognition of DV as both a criminal and public health issue. States have broadened definitions of domestic and intimate partner abuse, adopted more expansive protections for survivors, and increased criminal penalties, including longer sentencing time compared to non-DV crimes (; ). These developments have positioned the criminal-legal system as a central mechanism for responding to both DV and intimate partner violence (IPV; ; ; ). Despite this trajectory of reform, there remains limited systematic understanding of how DV is structured within state criminal codes. Much of the existing literature focuses on case law, service systems, or program evaluations, rather than statutory dictates (; ). As a result, there is little empirical mapping of how states define qualifying relationships, delineate forms of abuse, assign sentencing consequences, respond to protective order violations, codify defenses, and offer sentencing relief to survivor-defendants. This lack of statutory synthesis is particularly consequential given evolving understandings of DV as a pattern of coercive control rather than a series of isolated incidents (). While research across disciplines has emphasized the importance of capturing psychological, emotional, and economic abuse (; ), state criminal statutes vary widely in terms of the extent to which they reflect these dynamics. At the same time, state legislatures continue to expand sentencing enhancements, mandate DV-specific interventions, as well as survivor-specific reforms, raising important questions about consistency, equity, and alignment with contemporary evidence. Against this backdrop, a comprehensive, cross-state review of DV sentencing statutes is necessary to clarify how domestic violence is currently codified within the U.S. criminal-legal system and highlight the implications of statutory variation for survivors, defendants, and broader social norms.