The NIU Law Review’s 12th annual symposium, entitled “Domestic Violence: Relief, Results, Reform,” will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center.

The NIU Law Review, a student organization composed of top law students, is co sponsoring the event along with the NIU College of Law, Prairie State Legal Services and the Center for the Study of Family Violence and Sexual Assault, said Paige Hoyt, symposium editor for the NIU Law Review.

Hoyt said the Law Review’s symposiums are themed around new and timely issues, and some past symposiums have addressed land use, environmental issues and technology in the courtroom.

However, Hoyt also said the Law Review chose domestic violence as the topic of this year’s symposium not only because it is a prevalent issue, but also because it is a problem yet to be addressed at NIU in an open format.

This symposium will be less structured than most.

There will be panels made up of attorneys, judges, psychologists, sociologists and other persons associated with the study and prevention of domestic violence. Each panelist will present an aspect of the problem. Panel discussion will then occur, and after the discussions, the floor will be open to the audience to express opinions and ask questions.

There will be 12 experts on domestic violence at the symposium: keynote speaker Mary Becker, co-director of the Family Law Center at DePaul University’s College of Law; the honorable Rosemary Collins, a judge on the 17th Circuit Court; Alan Rosenbaum, a psychology professor in NIU’s Center for the Study of Family Violence and Sexual Assault; moderator Elvia Arriola, an associate professor at NIU’s College of Law; Jody Raphael, director for Research at the Center for Impact Research and author of “Saving Bernice: Battered Women, Welfare, and Poverty”; Peggy Patty, director of the Legal Institute at the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence; Deputy Don Parham of the Winnebago County Domestic Violence Unit; Adele Morrison, an assistant professor at NIU’s College of Law; Stephen Baker, secretary for the Illinois Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers; Gretchen Farwell and Kathy Bettcher, attorneys at Prairie State Legal Services; and Pam Wiseman, executive director for DeKalb’s Safe Passage shelter.

Rosenbaum said discussions about domestic violence usually focus on the victims, but he hopes the symposium will bring forward other issues as well, such as the batterers’ perspectives, parenting rights and child custody issues.

“I’ve worked for 23 years with battered women and with batterers,” he said. “Batterers are often victims themselves in some way. I’m certainly not saying the batterers are right, but their perspectives need to be addressed to move toward prevention.”

Hoyt said her goal is to raise awareness of domestic violence and brainstorm possible solutions.

“We can’t fix the world through one symposium, but by addressing concerns with different people in the legal community, we’ll start to get some reforms and chip away at the problem,” she said.