In the United States, Indian nations are recognized as having criminal law jurisdiction which is exercised through tribal courts. A recent project carried out by the National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA) analyzed existing tribal codes addressing violence against Indian women (the Violence Against Indian Women Code Project). The NAICJA developed standards to evaluate violence against women codes and examined forty tribal domestic violence codes. None of the forty met all of the standards developed by the NAICJA, but five were considered good examples since they met many of the standards.²⁰⁵ These codes are more criminal law in nature and do not appear to focus on civil remedies such as exclusive possession of the family home. The NAICJA recently has drafted a model domestic violence code.

The January 28, 2002 draft domestic violence model code defines "domestic violence" in a manner that reflects the broad concept of family relationships typical of many First Nations:

"Domestic Violence" means abuse, mental anguish, physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or the infliction of reasonable fear of bodily injury, between family or household members, or sexual assault of one family or household member by another. All crimes involving threat, violence, assault and physical or sexual abuse against adults, children, elderly or others enumerated in the Tribal Criminal Code or local law enforcement practice may be charged as domestic violence.²⁰⁶

The work of the NAICJA was carried out through a grant program of the federal Department of Justice Violence Against Women Office aimed at assisting tribal governments to address the issue of violence against women. The program aims to encourage the development of codes that include the power to issue civil protective orders as well as other law enforcement strategies and victim assistance services.²⁰⁷

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