My research examines violence committed against women in Essex County New York between 1799-1860, 1 utilize New York State criminal statutes, justice of the peace manuals, indictment, conviction, and examination records, as well as coroner's inquest, trial transcripts, and newspaper accounts to look at incidences of rape, attempted rape, murder, assault and assault and battery. My central focus is weather women's protection against sexual and non-sexual violence legally and socially improved over the course of six decades. I also argues that it is only by examining brutality committed against women in all its forms that we can begin to reconstruct a history of violence which explicates the differences and similarities of abuse suffered by women in the private and the public sphere. Accordingly, my study addresses the following questions. What were the acceptable limits of community and family violence in Essex county? How did community and family expectations reinforce gender roles? How did the community standing and marital status of victims and assailants affect the outcome of prosecutions in cases of violence? Finally, in order to understand the correlation between penalties and convictions, the following research seeks to determine if prosecutions of violent crimes against women increased with the shift to milder sentences after the revision of New York State's statutes in 1813 and 1829.