Junior Theme

For the past week, our class has been researching topics for our Junior Theme papers.  We were asked to come up with a "why" question.  I tried to think of things that were current issues in our country today and thought of things like the military, mental illness, and the economy.  However, none of these ideas really interested me to the point where I would want to research and write about them for a month... So I finally settled on an topic: spousal abuse.  My "why" question made this topic a lot more specific: "Why are spousal abuse cases treated with more leniency than other violent cases in the judicial system?" I went to Borders to find a book and searched with an employee there until I was satisfied with my choice.  I settled on a book called Violent Partners: A Breakthrough Plan for Ending the Cycle of Abuse by Linda G. Mills.  This book includes the author's personal accounts, reasons behind, approaches to, and political encounters with spousal abuse.  I really want to look into court cases concerning spousal abuse, but it has been difficult to find this.  Also, while researching the judicial aspect of my junior theme, I've run into problems.  Any suggestions for articles or books dealing with the court system and how they deal with spousal abuse cases?