South Carolina's reputation as a dangerous place for women in abusive relationships will improve, if a proposal by S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster works out. Last week, McMaster began a two-county pilot program that enlists private attorneys to convict domestic abusers.

In setting up the program, with the support of S.C. Supreme Court Justice Jean Toal, McMaster focused on the weakest link in the domestic-violence-response system: Solicitors typically take only violence cases of a high and aggravated nature - in which serious injuries occur - to circuit court, but many domestic violence cases are simple assaults, slaps and shoves, for instance.

As a result, the cases end up in municipal and state's-magistrate courts, where police officers double as prosecutors. This system hasn't worked well. Many men who begin with simple assaults later indulge in more harmful violence against spouses and girlfriends.

McMaster's idea, a good one, is to break the abuse pattern in the lower courts, in hope of triggering a decline in cases. We hope his plan works and look forward to the day when he takes it statewide.