Proposal Title
Demanding Accountability in Domestic Violence Courts
Location
Room 3-085
Start Date
9-11-2018 3:15 PM
End Date
9-11-2018 4:30 PM
Presentation Type
Paper
Abstract
This presentation explores whether specialized domestic violence courts are achieving their stated objective of abuser accountability. Domestic violence emerged from the private realm of family life into the public consciousness during the 1970s. Since then, there has been a largely successful movement to reframe domestic violence as a “real” social problem necessitating meaningful criminal justice intervention. Within the criminal justice system, victim and feminist groups have mostly prevailed in controlling the discourse around domestic violence as a gender-based offense. As a result, a criminal court model aimed at empowering victims and at holding abusers accountable has emerged. However, the efficacy of the domestic court model as currently implemented in achieving abuser accountability has been questionable. Drawing from defendants’ semi-structured interviews, this paper considers the implications of reliance on this model for domestic violence victims. At its core, the court model is a process of stigmatization meant to morally shame abusers into relinquishing gendered beliefs supporting relationship violence. Abusers participating in this study were found to invoke neutralization techniques to reinterpret their violent actions in a more socially acceptable story, rather than accept responsibility. Yet the responses of abusers suggest that this model does hold possibilities for better redressing this gender-based violence, but proponents will likely have to reconsider how victims view and how abusers participate in the court process.
Demanding Accountability in Domestic Violence Courts
Room 3-085
This presentation explores whether specialized domestic violence courts are achieving their stated objective of abuser accountability. Domestic violence emerged from the private realm of family life into the public consciousness during the 1970s. Since then, there has been a largely successful movement to reframe domestic violence as a “real” social problem necessitating meaningful criminal justice intervention. Within the criminal justice system, victim and feminist groups have mostly prevailed in controlling the discourse around domestic violence as a gender-based offense. As a result, a criminal court model aimed at empowering victims and at holding abusers accountable has emerged. However, the efficacy of the domestic court model as currently implemented in achieving abuser accountability has been questionable. Drawing from defendants’ semi-structured interviews, this paper considers the implications of reliance on this model for domestic violence victims. At its core, the court model is a process of stigmatization meant to morally shame abusers into relinquishing gendered beliefs supporting relationship violence. Abusers participating in this study were found to invoke neutralization techniques to reinterpret their violent actions in a more socially acceptable story, rather than accept responsibility. Yet the responses of abusers suggest that this model does hold possibilities for better redressing this gender-based violence, but proponents will likely have to reconsider how victims view and how abusers participate in the court process.
