Controversial and forward-thinking, this volume presents a much-needed analysis of restorative justice practices in cases of violence against women. Advocates, community activists, and scholars will find the theoretical perspectives and vivid case descriptions presented here to be invaluable tools for creating new ways for abused women to find justice.
A training resource for anyone working with battered women, especially in rural areas, Rural Woman Battering and the Justice System is recommended for law enforcement and criminal justice professionals, practitioners, advocates, shelter personnel, and advanced students in related courses of study, as well as academics and researchers.
This book takes as its operating premise that violence against women is prevalent throughout the world, that intimate violence is an important aspect of the broader problem of violence against women, and that the legal system has a crucial part to play in combating all forms of violence against women.
Women’s rights advocates in the United States have long argued that violence against women denies women equality and citizenship, but it took a movement of feminist activists and lawyers, beginning in the late 1960s, to set about realizing this vision and transforming domestic violence from a private problem into a public harm. This important book examines the pathbreaking legal process that has brought the pervasiveness and severity of domestic violence to public attention and has led the United States Congress, the Supreme Court, and the United Nations to address the problem. Elizabeth Schneider has played a pioneering role in this process. From an insider’s perspective she explores how claims of rights for battered women have emerged from feminist activism, and she assesses the possibilities and limitations of feminist legal advocacy to improve battered women’s lives and transform law and culture. The book chronicles the struggle to incorporate feminist arguments into law, particularly in cases of battered women who kill their assailants and battered women who are mothers. With a broad perspective on feminist lawmaking as a vehicle of social change, Schneider examines subjects as wide-ranging as criminal prosecution of batterers, the civil rights remedy of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, the O. J. Simpson trials, and a class on battered women and the law that she taught at Harvard Law School. Feminist lawmaking on woman abuse, Schneider argues, should reaffirm the historic vision of violence and gender equality that originally animated activist and legal work.
In December 1990 Ohio governor Richard F. Celeste granted clemency to 25 women who had been incarcerated for killing or assaulting abusive partners or stepfathers. Governors in other states quickly followed. This book documents the history of the feminist and social activist groups working within the context of the battered women's movement and the role they playing in making these events possible. The book examines the Ohio movement as a precedent-setting case study, then discusses and analyzes events in six other states where large-scale clemencies were achieved or attempted. Before clemency became a movement goal, feminist legal activists worked for two decades to challenge laws that they argued prevented women from fully defending themselves when accused of killing abusive men. One focus was to ensure that the women who killed could describe the danger with which they had lived and explain the basis of their belief that force was needed to defend their lives. Within a few years, some activists began to frame their legal defense strategies within the language of the battered woman syndrome, a strategy that remains controversial. The book analyses the strategies and achievements of the movement for clemency review, identifying the factors that led to success or failure. The last chapter looks at the post-prison lives of some of the 25 Ohio women who received clemency.
Drawing on cases, Stark identifies the problems with our current approach to domestic violence, outlines the components of coercive control, and then uses this alternate framework to analyse the cases of battered women charged with criminal offenses directed at their abusers.
Illuminates the threats Black women face and the lack of substantive public policy towards gendered violence Black women in marginalized communities are uniquely at risk of battering, rape, sexual harassment, stalking and incest. Through the compelling stories of Black women who have been most affected by racism, persistent poverty, class inequality, limited access to support resources or institutions, Beth E. Richie shows that the threat of violence to Black women has never been more serious, demonstrating how conservative legal, social, political and economic policies have impacted activism in the U.S.-based movement to end violence against women. Richie argues that Black women face particular peril because of the ways that race and culture have not figured centrally enough in the analysis of the causes and consequences of gender violence. As a result, the extent of physical, sexual and other forms of violence in the lives of Black women, the various forms it takes, and the contexts within which it occurs are minimized—at best—and frequently ignored. Arrested Justice brings issues of sexuality, class, age, and criminalization into focus right alongside of questions of public policy and gender violence, resulting in a compelling critique, a passionate re-framing of stories, and a call to action for change.
Donald Downs offers an analysis of the injustices behind the logic of battered woman syndrome, concluding that this very logic harms those it is trying to protect. This work seeks to rethink the criminal justice system.
