Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Regulating intimacy: judicial discourse in cases of wife assault (1970 to 2000)
Other Titles:	Women against violence : an Australian feminist journal
Authors:	Crocker, Diane
Keywords:	Legal issues;Criminal justice responses;Representations of women
Year:	2005
Publisher:	CASA House (Centre Against Sexual Assault)
Citation:	11 (2), February 2005
Notes:	This article reports the research into judicial decision making in Ontario, Canada, with regard to court cases of intimate partner violence against women between 1970 and 2000. From the case law decisions, judges condemned the violence, gave relatively harsh sentences, and found the intimate context of the violence was an aggravating factor. Judges also relied on stereotypes and traditional concepts of marriage, family and femininity. As records of decisions, court decisions indicate that wife abuse is a crime. However, as judicial discourse, they reflect how traditional ideologies persist and paternalism coexists in the court system. It analyses how the trial verdicts depended, to a large extent, on the judge’s appraisal of the credibility and character of those testifying in court. In sentencing, judges did not focus much on the negative characteristics of the offender or when they did, the effect was inconsistent as it was not used to rationalise a harsher sentence. Judges applied deterrence in almost all of the sentencing decisions with general deterrence over specific deterrence, reflecting the view that the problem is a social rather than an individual one. However, denunciation was justified with language that reinforced concepts of women as vulnerable. It concludes that judicial decisions are drawn from discourses about women’s vulnerability, with judges more concerned about protection than safety, and often minimised the violence or implicitly blamed the women.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/16573
ISSN:	1327-5550
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

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