The original domestic violence concept was a narrow one, confined to family violence in a household. This has been expanded by organisations who assist victims so that individuals who date, who break up, who have never cohabited can participate in domestic violence. The term has stretched until it has blown its seams. Not all jurisdictions recognise in law the new expanded version. "Domestic violence" loses me when it asserts a perpetrator of a horrendous crime (to quote Samuels) will travel a thousand miles to join a threat and yet retain victim status. Yes, the singed moth flies 1,000 miles to the flame and somehow, the flame is at fault. So we are looking at a logical contortion where yes, the defendant is admittedly by her own expert, perpetrator of a horrendous crime, initiator of the encounter at cost to her in time, energy and expense and yet appeals to us for sympathy as victim of domestic violence. She was in no wise part of a domestic surround unless she chose to be. Intimate partner violence is a better rubric but the incongruous roles Arias is representing to us clash and clang like a knife on tile.
