Help for Battered Women Overdue

* Re: The Oct. 29 letter from Don Hull, who resents government monies being used to fund domestic violence shelters. Mr. Hull’s claims that the state is “battering” taxpayers in order to fund these shelters and that men are being “battered to near poverty by family courts into paying child support” mock the physical, emotional and economic pain of the millions of Americans who are devastated by this violent crime each year.

According to the [U.S.] surgeon general, as many as 4 million women each year are victims of domestic violence. It is estimated that up to 10 million children are witnesses to, or secondary targets of, domestic violence. Approximately 50% of all homeless women and children in this country are fleeing domestic violence. Thirty percent of female homicide victims in 1993 were killed by their partners. For those victims, the “coercive power of the state,” so resented by Mr. Hull, is a welcome force that is long overdue.

R. SCOTT WYLIE

SUSAN EASTMAN

Public Law Center

Santa Ana