The data base consists of 128,171 domestic disputes reported to Ohio police jurisdictions. The victims of domestic violence are predominantly wives and they are injured or killed in 43% of the domestic dispute incidents. Considered separately death occurs to wives only slightly more often than to husbands or other family members, However, 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 perpetuate domestic violence by their inappropriate actions as well as their inaction. The result is that the family members' right to protection is abridged by the policy system's unwillingness to cope with domestic violence. (Publisher abstract)