I fell down some stairs...

Violence has been one of the main elements in all of David Lynch's works. It is no secret to anyone that there is a great amount of violence in Twin Peaks. Drug dealing, murder, and kidnapping can be seen in nearly every episode. What you also see is people being punished for these actions, but there seems to be one big exception to this rule. In all the cases of domestic violence or domestic unrest the police seem to lack the same involvement as they do with all the other cases of criminal actions. For example, in Twin Peaks Shelly is beaten by her husband Leo on a regular basis. Isn't it funny how the police do not even try to intervene even though everyone seems to be aware of it? The police do not even stop by once and say, "Hey, if you could stop beating your wife that would be great." And because there was no attempt to help out the Johnsons's situation Shelly ends up shooting Leo to protect herself. Another example is the fact that Leland Palmer was sexually abusing his daughter,Laura, and ultimately ended up killing her. If the police would have been involved sooner then it is safe to say Laura probably would not have been murdered. The amazing thing is that these are not a fictional scenarios, this is what happens in American households on a regular basis. Domestic violence is a terrible thing, but it is even worse when it is not reported. A national survey conducted by the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence found that only one-fourth of all physical assaults against women by intimates were reported to police. Some of the reasons for why they are not reported are women are scared of the repercussions that might face them from their abuser, embarrassment, or they just might think that no one really cares about them. This is exactly what happens in Twin Peaks. There are many cases of domestic violence that can be seen in Twin Peaks that are not reported for the same reasons they are not reported in real life. The domestic violence in Twin Peaks can be positively correlated to domestic violence in America.

-Asa D.

Here's the website where I found my statistics and information:
http://www.acadv.org/index.htm