What really needs to be addressed are the myriad of false accusations of abuse by women who don’t have to prove anything to get a judgement. I know from experience (my peon’s experience, not mine) as in 1998 his ‘wife’ got mad at him and claimed that he and his brother raped her following a hard night of drinking at the local pub. When she finally sobered up she realized what she had done but if she recanted she could be charged with filing false testimony and end up in jail herself. After he spent a month in jail she finally convinced a doctor to say she was mentally ill so that she could recant the charges without being prosecuted. For the next dozen years she had a psychiatric appointment, paid for by the Caja that I was paying for them as required by law.

The real rub, suspect, is common law marriage. Despite the myth, fathers are rarely the abusers. Instead, mothers’ boyfriends frequently are. It’s when couples like these can claim spousal protection from testifying that I suspect the main difficulties arise.