Protection, Prevention, Rehabilitation or Justice? Women's Use of the Law to Challenge Domestic Violence

Abstract

This article addresses the neglected question of what women who experience 'domestic violence' want from the law and examines the ways in which women actively engage with the legal system. Viewing women as agents trying to survive abuse, we examine their interaction with both civil and criminal legal systems as part of their 'active negotiation and strategic resistance' to men's violence. This represents a break from the tradition which has tended to view women survivors as passive recipients of the law and has focused on outcomes oflegal intervention to the exclusion of process. Using data from a British evaluation of criminal justice responses to domestic violence, we analyse legal processes which support or fail to support women and argue that legal interventions can contribute to women's improved safety and quality of life.* The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Home Office and Scottish Office who funded the research project on which this paper is based. The authors also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers who made useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Contextual factors impacting battered women's intentions to reuse the criminal legal system

“…While some might assume that a survivor who wanted charges dropped would not want further contact with the criminal legal system, these findings suggest that women use the legal system for different reasons. Consistent with the findings of Ford (1991) and Lewis et al (2000), some survivors use the legal system as a negotiating tool with their batterers. Some perpetrators, for example, may have promised to reform if the charges were dropped.…”

“…One study by Lewis and her colleagues (Lewis, Dobash, Dobash, & Cavanagh, 2000) explored what survivors wanted from the criminal legal system, as well as what they actually got out of the system. In-depth qualitative interviews about decisions to invoke the legal system were conducted with women whose partners had been arrested and convicted.…”

Violence against women—social services support during legal proceedings

“…Recent research supports the notion of abused women as active in their actions to deal with the violence, which puts in question earlier images of the learned helplessness and passive victims (see e.g. Lewis, 2004;Lewis, Dobash, Dobash Emerson & Cavanagh, 2000;Moe, 2007) Most women seek help in many different ways to end the violence (Barrett & St. Pierre, 2011;Bennett Cattaneo, Goodman, Kaltman & Dutton, 2007;Meyer, 2011).…”

Det besvärliga våldet : Socialtjänstens stöd till kvinnor som utsatts för våld i nära relationer

“…Senare forskning ger stöd åt bilden av våldsutsatta kvinnor som aktiva i sitt agerande för att hantera våldet, vilket starkt ifrågasätter den tidigare bilden av inlärd hjälplöshet och passiva offer (se till exempel Hydén, 1999;Lewis, 2004;Lewis, Dobash, Dobash Emerson & Cavanagh, 2000;Moe, 2007) De flesta kvinnor söker hjälp på många olika sätt för att stoppa våldet (Barrett & St. Pierre, 2011;Bennett Cattaneo, Goodman, Kaltman & Dutton, 2007;Meyer, 2011).…”