Learning

Relevant University of Pennsylvania courses

HSOC381 Nonstranger Violence (Fall 2009)
HSOC471 Guns & Health (Fall 2009)
SWRK775 Intimate Violence (Summer 2009)
SWRK799-311 Social Work Practice and Trauma (Spring 2009)
SW799-308 Violence in Relationships Throughout the Lifespan (Spring 2009)

Winter & Spring 2009

A series of community-university conversations occurred so as to identify ways in which we can be of mutual benefit. UPenn faculty, staff, and students met with people from each of the following agencies - 12-20 attended each meeting:

  • Lutheran Settlement House, Bilingual Domestic Violence Services
  • Philadelphia Women's Death Review Team
  • Women in Transition
  • Women Organized Against Rape

  • Congreso de Latinos Unidos, Domestic Violence Program
  • Menergy
  • National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women
  • Women Against Abuse

  • Institute for Safe Families
  • Men's Resource Center
  • Nationality Service Center
  • Women's Law Project

Past Events

October 2, 2008
U.S. Supreme Court Rulings & Violence Against Women Panel

Presented by The Evelyn Jacobs Ortner Center & The University of Pennsylvania Law School

Levy Conference Center, UPenn Law School – 3400 Chestnut St.

Panel Speakers

  • Molly Callahan, Director, Legal Center, Women Against Abuse
  • Joan Meier, George Washington University School of Law, who filed
    amicus briefs on behalf of domestic violence victims in several Supreme
    Court cases
  • David Rudovsky, University of Pennsylvania Law School, nationally
    renowned civil rights and criminal defense attorney
  • Deborah Harley Tierney, Chief Assistant District Attorney, Family
    Violence & Sexual Assault Unit, Philadelphia District Attorney's
    Office

Giles v. California
A woman filed a domestic violence report with police against her ex-boyfriend. Three weeks later he shot and killed her. Defense attorneys objected to the report being introduced into evidence because the ex-girlfriend was dead, and there was no way for them to cross-examine her allegations of domestic violence. Prosecutors countered that the boyfriend forfeited his right to confront his ex-girlfriend in court when he killed her. On June 25, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Giles, the defendant.

This is the most recent of a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that challenges how domestic violence cases are handled by police and the courts. Please join us as we explore these rulings and their implications for practice.

Click here to download event flyer.