This is the first anthology to take a theoretical look at violence against women. Each essay shows how philosophy provides a powerful tool for examining a difficult and deep-rooted social problem. Stanley G. French, Wanda Teays, and Laura M. Purdy, all philosophers, present a familiar phenomenon in a new and striking fashion. The editors employ a two-tiered approach to this vital issue. Contributors consider both interpersonal violence, such as rape and battering; and also systemic violence, (...) such as sexual harassment, pornography, prostitution, and violence in a medical context. The editors have further broadened the discussion to include such cross-cultural issues as rape in war, dowry deaths, female genital mutilation, and international policies on violence against women. Against this wide range of topics, which integrate personal perspectives with the philosophical, the contributors offer powerful analyses of the causes and effects of violence against women, as well as potential policies for effecting change. (shrink)

Violence against women is a serious problem in Turkey. The Women and Ethics Commission of the Turkish Physicians’ Association (Ankara Physicians’ Chamber) has undertaken significant work to counteract this. This article gives some indications of the sources of violence and discusses its social and health care implications. The Commission is pivotal in the education of women physicians and in heightening awareness of the situation. An outline is given of this work and recommendations are made (...) on how violence against women can be tackled and eliminated. (shrink)

International human rights treaties and declarations lay out the interconnection of civil and political rights with economic, social, and cultural rights. However, it was not until 1993 at the 2nd UN Conference on Human Rights in Vienna that governments agreed that all of women’s rights are an integral part of human rights. Promoting women’s economic, social, and cultural rights is a critical human rights advocacy issue. Poverty leaves women more exposed to violence and less able to (...) escape it, and severely restricts women’s ability to organize and fight for change. The article describes work by AI and other NGOs on violence against women and its connection with women's poverty and lack of education, healthcare, housing, and access to land in Africa. Besides the burgeoning of African women’s organizations calling for protection of all women’s human rights, a second hopeful development has been approval in July 2003 of an historic Protocol on the Rights of women in Africa. (shrink)

This article uses a feminist political economy framework to analyse economic violence against women in the context of the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia and the introduction of neoliberal regimes in its successor states from the late 1980s until 2015. The authors’ focus is on the following processes before, during and after the breakup: the wider social, political and economic context of Yugoslavia before the war, already marked by the introduction of orthodox neoliberal standards and practices and combined (...) with nationalism; the period during the war, with escalation of conflict and growing nationalism; and the post-socialist transformation, marked by aggressive neoliberalism. The analysis is based on women’s testimonies given in preparation of and during the Women’s Court in Sarajevo in 2015. It points to the conclusion that orthodox neoliberal policy and privatization, intersecting with patriarchy, nationalism and conflict, induced economic violence against women in the region. (shrink)

Domestic violence is endemic across Latin America. It is legitimated by patriarchal Christian theologies and widespread gender inequality. Drawing on the work of women theologians and activists working in Argentina, Uruguay and elsewhere, this article explores women's networks of resistance against violence. These include public and legal acknowledgement of domestic violence; the transmission of life-affirming values; pastoral support in the denouncement of violence; and the development of open and fluid household structures.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) withits Optional Protocol is the first binding legal act and leading international instrumentregarding the rights of persons with disabilities. One of the principles of CRPDis “respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to makeone’s own choices and independence”, whereby persons with disabilities are recognizedas holders of rights taking into account their specific situation. CRPD recognizes inArticle 6 that “women and girls with disabilities are subject to multiple (...) discrimination”and mandates signatory countries to “take measures to ensure their full and equalenjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The research was done inorder to examine the readiness of the state to institutionally cover the awareness of girlsand women with disabilities, their education on the issue of violence, access to servicesand information appropriate to the needs of each category separately, as well as systemicsolutions for their protection from violence. A qualitative research strategy was applied,and the research was conducted with representatives of the Centers for Social Work, representativesfrom the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, professionals who are directproviders of services in the field of non-family protection, as well as the girls and womenwith disabilities themselves. The main conclusions that emerge from the research saythat girls and women with disabilities are more susceptible to violence, especially bytheir partners or family members. More awareness is needed to recognize and encouragereporting of violence. (shrink)

In everyday language those who are violent are often compared to beasts. “Beast” it is said of one who tortures and rapes, or of one who traffics in women, men and children. But the poor beasts are angels when compared to certain human beings whose imagination is completely devoted to the humiliation and submission of others: they torture, rape and kill as if it were their natural right.

Violence against women is understood as a public health issue that has long-term health consequences for women. Economic inequality and women’s economic dependence on men make women vulnerable to violence. One approach to addressing poverty is through basic income, a cash transfer for all individuals which is not dependent on their employment status. This paper examines the relationship between basic income and violence against women by surveying different forms of cash (...) transfer programs and their association with intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, and systemic violence. Previous reviews report that cash transfers can be associated with decreased intimate partner violence. This review goes beyond existing systematic reviews by including intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, and systemic violence for a broader understanding of how cash transfers relate to violence against women. Search databases include EBSCOhost search with Medline, Social Science Abstracts, APA PsychINFO, Social Work Abstracts. Search terms were “basic income” or “cash transfer” and “women” and “violence” or “homicide” or “sexual risk.” Other terms searched were “indigenous” or “colonial” or “systemic”. This search included articles reporting on cash transfers as the exposure and an indicator of violence against women as the outcome. Articles were excluded if it did not fit these criteria and were not written in English. This search yielded 28 articles that described intimate partner violence (emotional, physical, or sexual), 15 articles that described sexual exploitation, and no articles describing systemic violence against women. We used other supplemental articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria to pinpoint gaps in literature on systemic violence. These papers were analyzed through a feminist lens, an intersectional approach in addition to other theories. This search resulted in 43 articles. Consistent with other reviews on this subject matter, many recipients of cash transfers reported feeling empowered by it. A large proportion of articles found that cash transfers have a decreased association with physical forms of IPV overall, however some articles report decreased, increased, or unchanged outcomes for emotional IPV, such as aggression, controlling behaviours, or threats. Cash transfers may also be associated with reduced sexual exploitation as nine out of 11 studies reported that participants reduced their number of sex trade interactions due to having their financial needs met and studies also reported their perceived increased autonomy in sexual decision-making. This article outlines the gaps in literature, including the examination of cash transfers and systemic violence that can guide future research to best understand how cash transfer impact violence against women. (shrink)

This article focuses on violence against women as a barrier to the realisation of women's civil, political, economic, social, cultural and developmental rights, as well as the consequences of this for the effective exercise of citizenship. The value of adopting a citizenship lens, identifying the nexus between violence against women and human rights, and adopting an approach that acknowledges the multiplicity, intersectionality and continuity of violence across the public and private spheres serves (...) to assist in identifying and providing an analysis of the continuing challenges in the quest to eliminate violence against women. Owing to the scarcity of literature that explicitly highlights the link between human rights, citizenship and violence against women, the current analysis highlights some of the existing literature on a situated understanding of citizenship through a women's human rights lens, while the discussion on violence against women as a barrier to realising all human rights that enable the exercise of effective citizenship is largely underpinned by the work of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences. (shrink)

I argue that the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), as an organization and through its individual members, can and should be a far greater ally in the prevention of violence against women. Specifically, I argue that we need to pay attention to obstetrical practices that inadvertently contribute to the problem of violence against women. While intimate partner violence is a complex phenomenon, I focus on the coercive control of women and (...) adherence to oppressive gender norms. Using physician response to alcohol use during pregnancy and court-ordered medical treatment as examples, I show how some obstetrical practices mirror the attitudes of abusive men insofar as they try to coercively control women's behavior through manipulation and violence. To be greater allies in the prevention of violence against women, obstetricians should stop participating in practices that inadvertently perpetuate violence against women. (shrink)

Traditional disciplinary guidelines are inadequate to address some of the ethical dilemmas that emerge when conducting research on violence against women and girls. This article is organized according to the ethical principles of respect for persons, privacy and confidentiality, justice, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. In the article, I describe dilemmas involved in cross-cultural research, research on children, informed consent, voluntariness, coercion, deception, safety, mandated reporting, and dissemination. In the article, I include examples from qualitative and quantitative studies in (...) many nations. I also offer suggestions for researchers and institutional review boards. (shrink)

Recent discussions about violence against women have shifted their attention to specific forms of violence in relation to migration and Islam. In this article, I consider different modes of representing women's experiences in French immigrant communities. These representations relate to the French feminist movement Ni Putes Ni Soumises (neither whore nor submissive), a movement that in the early 2000s deplored both the sustained degradation of certain banlieue neighborhoods and also the charges and restrictions that this (...) entails, particularly for young women. Drawing on different narratives and images of women's painful experience, I consider, in a first step, how the question of representing violence against (post)migrant women is framed in terms of the tension between universality and particularity within French republicanism. In the next part of my argument, I bring into focus the question of how to access women's suffering. For a perspective on pain not as an interiorized, private experience but as an accessible complex of practices, articulations, memories, visions and social reconfigurations, I consider Smaïn Laacher's sociological study (2008) about written testimonies of violent experience that had been addressed by (post)migrant women to French women organizations such as Ni Putes Ni Soumises. I finally suggest reading women's accounts on violence not in relation to a universal discourse of rights, but as a political contestation of the naturalized order of representing violence, suffering and agency inside French banlieue communities. Drawing on Jacques Rancière's notion of dissensus, such a contestation can be staged through words by those who have no visibility in the representational order, words not to criticize the unaccomplished ideals of universal equality, but to create a universal community and a common language of experience in the mode of ‘as-if’. (shrink)

Social networking and rapid digital evolution have created a brand-new framework of human behaviours and habits. Of course, the majority of them already existed over the centuries but in a different form; as a result, conventional assaults towards legal interests of specific individuals have initially transformed into electronic and then into cyber(-)crimes (p.e. from conventional pornography to internet pornography or cyber/digital pornography including sometimes even virtual pornography via pseudo images and totally AI generated pictures). When discussion comes to gender-based (...) class='Hi'>violence, in particular violence against women and domestic violence, we realize that abuses and violations of their fundamental human rights could take place either online or offline; furthermore, both similarities and differences in old and new behaviours, and consequently in crime formations (“actus reus”) and in perpetrators’ “modus operandi” could easily be found and categorized. This paper will not discover the causes or the elements behind the various digital abuses against women; its first purpose is to gather the various crime behaviours against women and reach some conclusions by a methodically comparative bibliographic and legislative research. Besides, tackling gender-based violence –in particular violence against women and domestic violence- consists one of the main contemporary concerns of every liberal state. CoE’s contribution to it –through Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) but even via ECHR’s case law- is indisputable. At the same time, European Union is trying to end gender-based violence through its member states with a new legal instrument (a proposed Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence), whose results are expected to be more direct and -hopefully- more effective. The main target of this paper is to present and examine the specific form of digital crime against women and girls as long as the majority of crimes nowadays takes place digitally; notwithstanding the fact that pandemic and post pandemic era have definitely determined criminals’ modus operandi. At the end of the day, someone has to answer: how Criminal Law faces the new aforementioned behaviours, based on the fundamental theory of legal interest and leading to a justified (extra) standardization? And even more: where does this “plus” in penalties (: aggravation) for behaviours that combine characteristics of digital and gender-based criminality come from? (shrink)

This paper aims to analyse whether gendered interpretations of domestic violence have an effect on the approach to victims’ responsibilities and their role in protecting themselves against further violence. It employs a critical discourse analysis and includes a qualitative analysis of interviews with 10 victims and three court rulings. The analysis of the victims’ narratives and court rulings revealed that women were often seen as key actors in continuing victimization. The findings obtained in this study may (...) help academics and practitioners in the area of violence to understand that gender-neutral criminal justice systems are not necessarily separated from gendered social discourse. (shrink)

This abstract is based on materials collected and analyzed during the project “Violence against Women in Tajikistan” which was implemented during 1999–2000. The project was completed with methodological and financial support of the World Health Organization (WHO), UNDP, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Results of this project were presented in a national conference on Violence Against Women in Tajikistan” 29–30, March 2001 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

In 1998, the Labour government introduced legislation broadening British sentencing powers in relation to crimes aggravated by the offender's hostility towards the victim's actual or perceived race, religion, sexual orientation or disability. Gender is a notable omission from this list. Through a survey of eighty-eight stakeholders working in the violence against women (VAW) sector, this paper explores both the potential benefits and possible disadvantages of adding a gender-based category concerned with VAW to British hate crime legislation. The (...) majority of participants believed that a hate crime approach would offer significant benefits, especially in terms of the symbolic power of the law to send a message to society that VAW is unacceptable. However, most also recognised that the addition of a VAW category to current legislation would involve major practical and conceptual difficulties, not least those resulting from problematic assumptions about the nature of hate crimes versus VAW, and a general unwillingness on the part of policy-makers to address the socio-cultural inequalities that underpin VAW. Overall, the fact that the majority of participants favoured inclusion, on the basis that the possible symbolic benefits were likely to outweigh the potential practical disadvantages, is significant: it speaks to the power of hate crime legislation to challenge many forms of inequality and discrimination still endemic in British society. (shrink)

Pronatalism—the social bias toward having children—is at the core of much violence against women. Its chief characteristic, and its moral Achilles heel, is that it undermines autonomous decision-making about childbearing. Together with its soulmates misogyny and geneticism, it harms children, male partners, and humanity as a whole, given the serious environmental challenges now facing us. But, of course, biology requires women to gestate offspring, and women are generally expected to be responsible for childrearing. Female gender (...) roles incorporate these facts, and thus pronatalism’s negative impact on women—both their bodies and their lives—is of another order of magnitude. Yet, this state of affairs is so taken for granted that it is almost invisible, and is therefore especially hard to eradicate. Attempts to do so are also often erroneously confused with, and undermined by, negativism about having children. (shrink)

There has been little investigation of male adolescent violence against women as acknowledged by boys themselves, and even less on such violence in different contexts with comparative studies of behavior between those who perpetrate this violence and the population at large. This study used cluster analysis to establish a male adolescent typology based on boys’ self-reporting of violence against women in three contexts. The participants were 3,132 Spanish teenage boys aged 14–18 with (...) experience of relationships with girls. Three discrete, identifiable types were obtained: the first group (69.8%), ofnon-violentboys; the second group (26%), more involved insexual harassment onlineoutside a relationship but with a low incidence of dating violence offline; the third group (4.2%), withabuse in the three contextsbut less involved in sexual harassment online than the second group. The logistic regression analysis showed that justification of male dominance and violence was the main risk condition for inclusion in the second and third groups, followed by low self-esteem (for the third group) and risky sexual behaviors online (for the second and third groups). The findings based on these results are important for preventing male adolescent dating violence against women in the three male types detected. (shrink)

Despite the persistence of violence inside and around prisons, and the dubious adequacy of criminal law to respond to victim–survivors, international human rights (IHR) discourse increasingly promotes the mobilisation of the state’s penal apparatus to respond to human rights violations, including violence against women (VAW). Using an anticolonial feminist approach, this article scrutinises the ontological and epistemological commitments underlying ‘human rights penality,’ by analysing features of the Western-colonial register vis-a-vis more relational worldviews. Separateness, abstraction, and transcendence (...) broadly underpin the exclusion of embodied experience, context, and material reality from the juridical field. In the second part, through discourse analysis of Inter-American and European case law, the author shows the deployment of human rights penality, the displacement of experience, and the disregard of context in IHR discourse. VAW is construed as a procedural and penal matter: it is the absence of a penal process that courts regard as failure to protect women, rather than the state’s inability/unwillingness to address structural subordination. Moreover, the ‘virtues’ attributed to the penal system justify its expansion, which facilitates the continuity of penal violence and debilitates alternative approaches to justice. Finally, the author posits penal abolition as an anticolonial praxis, pointing at examples of anti-carceral feminist work. (shrink)

After almost two decades in power, R. T. Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party have established authoritarian and Islamist governance in Turkey, which has adversely affected gender equality and women’s rights. So much so, that in 2009 the European Court of Human Rights acknowledged that there is a climate conducive to domestic violence in Turkey. Despite Erdoğan withdrawing Turkey unconstitutionally from the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, the (...) government cannot withdraw from the state’s duty to protect its citizens from the criminal acts of private individuals. By using international and regional organisations’ approaches to positive obligations and due diligence as a measure, the article addresses whether Turkey is fulfilling its duty of protecting women from the violent conduct of others. It is concluded that the government is failing in its positive obligations and instead, is reinforcing the climate through its discourse and practices that strengthen a national tolerance of violence against women and the national authorities’ reluctance to address it, thus allowing for impunity of its perpetrators. (shrink)

Focusing on Foucault's work on “infamous men” and the “dangerous individual,” this chapter argues that there are other instances in Foucault's oeuvre in which he is similarly insensitive to violence against women, although these cases have drawn less critical attention. The two‐fold aim of the chapter is, first, to examine what is at stake for Foucault in his writings on infamous men and dangerous individuals whose infamy and dangerousness involved violence against women, and, second, (...) to problematize Foucault's failure to attend to gendered power relations in these texts. Foucault's most sustained consideration of a monomania diagnosis concerns the case of Pierre Rivière. The chapter argues that some of the aspects of existence that Foucault fails to see in his dogged focus on what he reads as agonistic medical‐iegal battles and power relations between men include the family, gender relations, the victimization of women and children, suffering, and love. (shrink)

Sexual violence against women is an issue of urgency that arises in all cultures locally, nationally, globally and transnationally. This problem has broad dimensions in both the public and private domains, both cases that are reported or not reported to law enforcement. Factually, the trend of this problem has been identified as increasing every year in Maluku, Indonesia. Therefore, the church requires serious attention to prevention and systematic treatment to overcome it. This sensitivity and awareness are a (...) manifestation of the church’s sense of calling and responsibility for the restoration of human dignity. The pastoral sermon service model is the church’s strategic approach to handling this problem. This research aimed to develop a model of pastoral sermons for victims of sexual violence against women in Maluku. This research focused on identifying and exploring the tragic experiences and impacts of sexual violence against women. Furthermore, a cross-cultural pastoral model was created for victims of violence.Contribution: This article provided a new perspective from the post-modern homiletics to approach social issues. This new homiletical approach to dealing with the problem of women’s sexual violence is one of the main focuses of ‘Women’s Theological Studies’ in HTS. (shrink)

This paper presents the results of the first phase of a longitudinal study initiated during the ‘first wave’ of the COVID-19 pandemic in Montenegro. The research aimed to examine the influence of selected risk factors on the occurrence of physical violence against women by their husbands during the pandemic. Four risk factors were assessed: the husband’s job loss, the frequency of alcohol consumption by the husband, the history of family violence, and the distribution of family responsibilities. (...) The study was conducted on a sample of 500 adult female participants, age range 20 to 49 years. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that the husband’s job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of physical violence against women. Frequent alcohol consumption by husbands, as a negative coping mechanism for stress, was found to be the strongest predictor of physical violence against women. Furthermore, a prior occurrence of domestic violence was associated with an increased likelihood of physical violence perpetrated by the husband. Findings also indicated that more equitable distribution of household responsibilities between partners correlated with a lower likelihood of physical violence against women. These results underscore the need for targeted strategies in preventing this issue. (shrink)

This chapter examines autonomy in regard to domestic violence. It discusses how intimate partner abuse diminishes autonomy. It is argued that professional care-givers should usually provide uncritical support for abused women who choose to remain in abusive relationships rather than trying rationally to persuade them to change their minds. Legal policy must treat individual cases with consideration for the material and symbolic impact of that treatment on a whole population.

Mobile applications (apps) have gained significant popularity as a new intervention strategy responding to violence against women and girls. Despite their growing relevance, an assessment from the perspective of public health ethics is still lacking. Here, we base our discussion on the understanding of violence against women and girls as a multidimensional, global public health issue on structural, societal and individual levels and situate it within the theoretical framework of structural injustice, including epistemic injustice. (...) Based on a systematic app review we previously conducted, we evaluate the content and functions of apps through the lens of structural injustice. We argue that technological solutions such as apps may be a useful tool in the fight against violence against women and girls but have to be situated within the broader frame of public health that considers the structural dimensions of such violence. Ultimately, the concerns raised by structural injustice are—alongside key concerns of safety, data privacy, importance of human supportive contact, and so forth—crucial dimensions in the ethical assessment of such apps. However, research on the role and relevance of apps as strategies to address the structural and epistemic dimensions of violence remains scarce. This article aims to provide a foundation for further discussion in this area and could be applicable to other areas in public health policy and practice. (shrink)

This article reflects on the troubles wrought by individualistic academic research and presents more fully a vision for feminist activist research on the institutionalization of violence against women. I explore what research might look like if constructed by activist-researchers and encourage academic researchers to collaborate with and for social movements concerned with violence against women.

There isn’t much understanding in some marriages. My sister has six [children] and another has eight. I said to one of them that she shouldn’t have any more. And she said “What can I do? When my husband comes home drunk, he foxes me to sleep with him.” And that is what happens to a lot of women. And if the women don’t do it, the men hit them, or treat them badly. Or the men get jealous and (...) think their wives are with other men.—Rene, a 29-year old Peruvian womanGender violence is a major yet often underrecognized obstacle to reproductive choice. In both the abortion rights movement in the United States and the reproductive health movement globally, the “enemy” of self-determination and choice is usually seen as imposing from the top down. In the North, it is the government—through the courts, the legislature, and bureaucratic rulemaking—that threatens to “take away” women’s reproductive autonomy. The image is one of the public sphere invading that which is private—of the state interfering with a woman’s right to control her own body. (shrink)

To the authors’ knowledge, not much has been said or done in African philosophical circles with regard to providing a theoretical framework from which the discrimination against African women with disabilities can be addressed. In this article, the authors show how such a framework can be grounded in Innocent Asouzu’s complementarism. Their contention, one grounded in this framework, is that this discrimination has its roots in an isolationist, elitist, and exclusivist mindset/metaphysics. The authors further argue that one way (...) to overcome this problematic mindset is to replace it with one that views each individual human being as a missing link of reality, that is, a complementary philosophy. The hope is that with this replacement the gaze that subconsciously views women living with disability as a group that is distinguishable from other human beings will be summarily abandoned. (shrink)

Hannah Arendt says that "violence is nothing more than the most flagrant manifestation of power."[1] Given this definition, one might expect that violence takes many forms. Numerous writers have, in fact, applied violence to more than direct bodily harm. Within philosophy, Newton Garver, for example, has developed a typology of violence that includes overt and covert forms, as well as personal..

Background Studying global health problems requires international multidisciplinary teams. Such multidisciplinarity and multiculturalism create challenges in adhering to a set of ethical principles across different country contexts. Our group on health system responses to violence against women (VAW) included two universities in a European high-income country (HIC) and four universities in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to investigate professional and policy perspectives on the types, causes of, and solutions to ethical challenges specific to the ethics (...) approval stage of the global research projects on health system responses to VAW. Methods We used the Network of Ethical Relationships model, framework method, and READ approach to analyse qualitative semi-structured interviews (n = 18) and policy documents (n = 27). In March-July 2021, we recruited a purposive sample of researchers and members of Research Ethics Committees (RECs) from the five partner countries. Interviewees signposted policies and guidelines on research ethics, including VAW. Results We developed three themes with eight subthemes summarising ethical challenges across three contextual factors. The global nature of the group contributed towards power and resource imbalance between HIC and LMICs and differing RECs’ rules. Location of the primary studies within health services highlighted differing rules between university RECs and health authorities. There were diverse conceptualisations of VAW and vulnerability of research participants between countries and limited methodological and topic expertise in some LMIC RECs. These factors threatened the timely delivery of studies and had a negative impact on researchers and their relationships with RECs and HIC funders. Most researchers felt frustrated and demotivated by the bureaucratised, uncoordinated, and lengthy approval process. Participants suggested redistributing power and resources between HICs and LMICs, involving LMIC representatives in developing funding agendas, better coordination between RECs and health authorities and capacity strengthening on ethics in VAW research. Conclusions The process of ethics approval for global research on health system responses to VAW should be more coordinated across partners, with equal power distribution between HICs and LMICs, researchers and RECs. While some of these objectives can be achieved through education for RECs and researchers, the power imbalance and differing rules should be addressed at the institutional, national, and international levels. Three of the authors were also research participants, which had potential to introduce bias into the findings. However, rigorous reflexivity practices mitigated against this. This insider perspective was also a strength, as it allowed us to access and contribute to more nuanced understandings to enhance the credibility of the findings. It also helped to mitigate against unequal power dynamics. (shrink)

This paper addresses how states improve their responsiveness to violence against women in developing countries with little political will and few resources to do so. One key to engendering justice and improving responsiveness is building specialized institutions within the state that facilitate the implementation of laws addressing violence against women. Why and how do states engage in institution-building to protect marginalized populations in these contexts? I propose that developing countries are more likely to create (...) and maintain specialized institutions when domestic and international political and legal frameworks make the state more vulnerable to women’s demands, and when civil society coordinates with the state and/or international organizations to take advantage of this political opportunity. This coordination brings necessary pressure and resources that would be difficult, if not impossible, to deliver otherwise. This inter-institutional coordination is necessary for building and maintaining new state institutions and programs that help to monitor the implementation of laws, develop public policies, provide services for victims, and improve responsiveness of the justice system. This fills an important lacuna in the literature, which focuses on women’s state institutions as an important catalyst for responsiveness to violence against women, but does not explain how these institutions are initially constructed. (shrink)

Resumen El articulo lleva a cabo una reflexión propositiva sobre la concepción y el concepto de violencia contra las mujeres. Su objetivo es reparar en la importancia de reforzar la dimensión de justificación y fundamentación de la categoría y poner el acento en sus elementos basilares e irrenunciables que a su vez pueden constituir propuestas de avance en su interpretación y aplicación. Volver sobre los presupuestos adecuados para superar algunas de las resistencias e incomprensiones que afectan a su teoría y (...) práctica jurídica. Esto es, el carácter político del concepto, los rasgos del sistema de dominación del que se nutre, la coherencia de introducir la tesis de la violencia como continuum, la integración de las respuestas frente a la violencia en el marco de la lucha por la igualdad.Abstract This paper conducts a critical reflection on the conception and the concept of violence against women. Its aim is to recognize the importance of strengthening the scope of justification and grounds of this category, and to emphasize their basilar and unwaiverable elements, which may in turn provide significant proposals for improving its interpretation and application. To return to the appropriate assumptions to overcome some resistances and misunderstandings that affect its theory and legal practice. This is, the political dimension of the notion, the characteristics of the system of domination that inspires it, the consistency of introducing the thesis considering violence as a continuum, the integration of the answers against violence wihtin the framework of the fight for equality. (shrink)

This article asks if the incorporation of Sumak Kawsay, a concept from Andean philosophy, into the Constitution of Ecuador, has impacted the legal regulation of violence against women. It examines the trajectory of penal reform in the field of domestic violence and suggests that the decolonial shift in the Constitution has failed to significantly disrupt the dominant framework of penality in which gender violence regulation is inscribed. At the same time, feminist demands have been reframed (...) through the formations of criminal law and the dominant political discourse, resulting in provisions that reproduce a positivistic logic and a family protection rationality, with problematic consequences for women’s access to justice on the ground. If securing success in legal reform entails translating emancipatory demands into established and unchallenged penal paradigms, the potential of decolonial notions is overshadowed by the language, formalities and underlying assumptions of criminal law. (shrink)

Ghana, like many African countries, continues to grapple with domestic violence issues. Ghana's 1992 Constitution mandates provisions that should eradicate the scourge of violence against women and children. In this paper, two main questions are asked. First, will the 1992 Constitution ultimately lead to victories over discrimination and violence against Ghanaian women? Second, has progress been made in eradicating violence against women in Ghana to date? In that regard, have governmental (...) and non-governmental organizations supported Ghanaian women to arrive at relative stability, empowerment and freedom from violence? Progress thus far is encouraging. Presently, there are several holistic or organic approaches being used to combat domestic violence in Ghana. however, an epidemiological examination of custom and a psychosocial approach towards domestic violence may facilitate permanent meaningful solutions. (shrink)

Australia is witnessing a political, social and cultural renaissance of public debate regarding violence against women, particularly in relation to domestic and family violence (DFV), sexual assault and sexual harassment. Women's voices calling for law reform are central to that renaissance, as they have been to feminist law reform dating back to nineteenth-century campaigns for property and suffrage rights. Although feminist research has explored women’s voices, speaking out and storytelling to highlight the exclusions and (...) limitations of the legal and criminal justice systems in responding to women’s experience, less attention has been paid to how women's voices are elicited, received and listened to, and the forms of response they have received. We argue that three recent public inquiries in Australia reveal an urgent need for a victim-survivor-centred theory of listening to women’s voices in law reform seeking to address violence against women. We offer a nascent theory of a victim-survivor-centred approach grounded in openness, receptivity, attentiveness and responsiveness, and argue that in each of our case studies, law reform actors failed to adequately listen to women by silencing and refusing to listen to them; by hearing them but failing to be open, receptive and attentive; and by selectively hearing and resisting transformation. We argue that these inquiries signal an acute need for attention to the dynamics of listening in law reform processes, and conclude that a victim-survivor-centred theory of listening is a critical foundation for meaningful change to address violence against women. (shrink)

This chapter examines the tragedy of gun-related intimate partner violence against women. In that guns are minimally regulated in the United States, it is a uniquely American tragedy whose full scale is hidden by a lack of exact numbers that frustrates a proper account of its extent. This chapter adopts a Nietzschean genealogical approach to uncover two myths that explain the persistence of GIPVW. The myth of masculine priority is traced to its Hellenic roots, and the myth (...) of firearms in the formation of the United States is given a deeper historical analysis. In each case there are vested interests that allow for both the proliferation of GIPVW and how intentionally little we know about the exact statistics. The chapter concludes by looking at some post-myth solutions to the problem. (shrink)

This article is a contribution to a suite of articles on violence against women and girls. It sets out the context in which this issue is currently discussed, how it might be understood and how it can be addressed. Education is seen as a key mechanism for the prevention of gender-based violence through the transformation of the attitudes and beliefs that boys and young men hold about women and girls and what it means to be (...) a man. This article considers the challenges of achieving this in the face of online influencers like Andrew Tate with their appeal to masculine entitlement and supremacy, often expressed in terms of misogynistic violence and coercion. Drawing on the work of Jacqueline Rose, Judith Butler, and others, the article argues that this is a task that involves creative and affective pedagogy as well as sustained critical engagement. There is, therefore, an important role for the arts and humanities in providing spaces for exploration, conversation, and reflection about the embodied experience of violence and abuse. Through difficult educational encounters it may be possible to initiate a change in boys and young men from impervious thoughtlessness to a greater recognition and understanding of the impact of harassment and violence, both within the educational setting and beyond. (shrink)

This article provides information about the World Council of Churches' Project on Overcoming Violence against Women and a brief progress report on work done so far since its establishment in September 2000. Included are the 'Dundee Principles' for Churches to implement to overcome violence against women, the setting up of an internet website, and the production of a dossier of good practice that will be presented to the World Council of Churches in 2006. There (...) is a specific invitation to theologians to be in contact with the Project. (shrink)

A major methodological problem in victimization surveys on physical and sexual violence against women is the underreporting of violence. The first part of this article makes a case for 6 feminist strategies for improving the accuracy of self-report data on victimization within a mainstream survey research framework. The second part of the article is a presentation of data from a survey of Toronto women that is designed to show the efficacy of these feminist strategies.