Citing the need for austerity, Topeka, KS has decriminalized domestic assault, throwing it to the county's district attorney to decide whether they want to start prosecuting DV assault cases (historically, they've handed off such cases to the city, citing budgetary constraints).

From the New York Times: 

Three arms of government, all ostensibly representing the same people, have been at an impasse over who should be responsible for — and pay for — prosecuting people accused of misdemeanor cases of domestic violence.

City leaders had blamed the Shawnee County district attorney for handing off such cases to the city without warning. The district attorney, in turn, said he was forced to not prosecute any misdemeanors and to focus on felonies because the County Commission cut his budget. And county leaders accused the district attorney of using abused women as pawns to negotiate more money for his office.

After both sides dug in, the dispute came to a head Tuesday night.

By a vote of 7 to 3, the City Council repealed the local law that makes domestic violence a crime.

Eighteen people have been arrested on domestic violence charges since September and released without charges because no agency is accepting new cases. That has raised concerns among advocates for victims of domestic violence, some of whom gathered Tuesday outside government buildings to express outrage over the gamesmanship.

“To have public officials pointing fingers while victims of domestic violence are trying to figure out who will protect them is just stunning,” said Joyce Grover, executive director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence.

The upshot is that women (and yes, the victims of domestic violence are primarily women) are collateral damage in a colossal game of chicken between three branches of government that are saying, in effect, that they will not prosecute domestic violence unless they are literally forced to do so.