The data were derived from domestic disputes known to police and reported monthly to the State of Ohio under Ohio Revised Code. The data base consisted of 58,532 domestic disputes reported to 658 Ohio police jurisdictions. The reported disputes resulted in 13,939 criminal complaints. The victims of domestic violence were predominantly wives and they were injured or killed in 43% of the domestic disputes in which criminal complaints were initiated. Considered separately death occurred to wives only slightly more often than to husbands and other family members. The trend in the police response to domestic dispute intervention is sufficiently clear to strongly recommend that the police create policies and take actions that protect the family members' right to be free from physical assault or homicide, whether in the home or elsewhere. The police have perpetuated domestic violence by their inappropriate actions as well as their inaction. The result has been that the family members' right to protection has been abridged by the police system's unwillingness to cope with domestic violence. (Publisher abstract)