Through the development of its social service intervention model, the state became the arbiter of acceptable parental behavior in America by the middle of the 20th century. A flurry of legislative activity to respond to the plight of domestic abuse victims occurred between 1960 and 1980. Such reforms included mandatory child abuse reporting, facilitation of the prosecution of child molesters, and the expansion and clarification of civil and criminal remedies for battered wives. Some legal disputes resulting from these laws are the use of a justifiable-homicide defense when abused wives kill their husbands, the criminalization of marital rape, the conflict between privileged communications to professionals and mandatory reporting duties, and exceptions to the hearsay rule in child sexual abuse cases. Regarding future directions, this paper recommends the expansion of civil protection orders in adult and child abuse cases. 98 references.