Crime Control and Feminist Law Reform in Domestic Violence Law: A Critical Review

Domestic Violence at the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender

“…Thus, Coker (2001) elaborates at least three ways that state intervention can cause more intrusion in the lives of and harm to poor battered women of color by increasing the risks of (a) arrest of those very same battered women for domestic violence, (b) unwarranted removal by the state of children from women who have been battered, and (c) prosecution of battered women involved, even peripherally, in criminal conduct (sometimes related to their being abused). For state interventions to have any hope of being useful to poor minority battered women, Coker (2001) argues that two sets of conditions are necessary: First is the need for significant material resources to be made available to the poorest and most disadvantaged battered women to better their chances of success in leaving or changing the immediate battering situation, and second is the need for effective battered women's organizations and coalitions to act as institutional reformers by monitoring police, prosecutorial, and judicial responses as well as to be advocates for the particular needs of individual battered women from marginalized communities. Sokoloff,Dupont / INTERSECTIONS OF RACE,CLASS,AND GENDER 55 Because of the problems related to relying on the criminal justice system, many domestic violence scholars are looking to institutions other than just the criminal justice system to find solutions to woman abuse (Almeida & Lockard, in press;Richie & Kanuha, 1993;T.…”

The Social Control of Family Violence

“…At one end of the debate, these policies may take the burden of criminal justice sanctions from the victim; in abusing his intimate partner, the batterer has committed a crime against the state and must be treated accordingly (Wills, 1997). At the other end, these policies are seen as removing a woman's volition and may increase her vulnerability to arrest and prosecution, her risk of intervention by child protection agencies, and greater danger when her abuser is released from detention (Coker, 2001;Ford, 2003;Mills, 2003). The feminist critique of mandatory policies throws into relief the parallels between the coercive control of batterers and of the state (Coker, 2001).…”

“…At the other end, these policies are seen as removing a woman's volition and may increase her vulnerability to arrest and prosecution, her risk of intervention by child protection agencies, and greater danger when her abuser is released from detention (Coker, 2001;Ford, 2003;Mills, 2003). The feminist critique of mandatory policies throws into relief the parallels between the coercive control of batterers and of the state (Coker, 2001). Mandatory policies have moved through the judicial system thus far in a logical fashion, using more law as the society, as a collective, becomes comfortable perceiving intimate partner violence as a crime.…”

Domestic Violence and Family Law: Criminological Concerns

“…Naming the violence and arguing in favor if its identification as a serious problem meriting a public response were key aspects of this effort (Coker 2001;Schneider 2000). Criminal and civil laws have been written and revised in an effort to answer calls to take such violence seriously, with most substantive changes on the order of reforms to policing and legal practice, especially around arrest and orders for protection (Buzawa 2012;Coker 2001;Gerstenberger and Williams 2013;Schneider 2000). As Radford and Hester (2006) observed, increased attention to domestic violence has coincided with rising social control and 'tough on crime' rhetoric which ostensibly relies on the moral authority of victims to justify changes in criminal justice practice.…”