While public debate over street crime reaches a fever pitch, the biggest threat to women's safety in fact lies at home: 75% of women murdered are killed by their husbands or lovers, participants in a conference on domestic violence said recently.

And as "three strikes and you're out" goes into effect against repeat felons, the fact remains that some women are assaulted dozens of times by a domestic partner before the justice system gets involved, said Barbara Hart, an attorney and victims' rights advocate.

Even then, poor coordination among police and prosecutors too often lets the perpetrator off, she said.

More than 450 police officers, social workers, judges, doctors and victims' advocates jammed the Police Academy gymnasium for Los Angeles' first large-scale conference on domestic violence, which was conceived by psychiatrist Marjorie Braude and co-sponsored by her husband, Councilman Marvin Braude, and the Police Department.

The theme of the conference was how to increase coordination within the justice system to stop family batterers, and participants both criticized the lack of a stronger response to domestic violence and praised ongoing efforts to control abusers.

Swamped by increasing domestic violence in the city, the LAPD is beefing up its response to assaults and murders among family members and working closely with victim advocacy groups that assist with investigations and violence prevention.

Police officials said that domestic violence constitutes 40% of police calls in many areas of Los Angeles.

Domestic violence is a threat not only to its direct victims, but to the police who spend so much of their time dealing with it. Volatile family disputes are the deadliest assignments for police officers, accounting for 40% of police deaths nationwide last year, according to the National Assn. of Chiefs of Police.

When rookie Officer Christy Lynne Hamilton was fatally shot last month in Northridge, she was responding to a domestic violence call.

And violence in the home contributes to violence throughout society, participants said. They noted that most of the inmates crowding California jails have either been victims of battering in the home or grew up in an atmosphere of domestic violence.

There has often been inadequate coordination of police and prosecutors, leading to batterers evading conviction, conference participants said.