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Full-Text Articles in Law
A Provocative Defense, Aya Gruber
A Provocative Defense, Aya Gruber
Aya Gruber
It is common wisdom that the provocation defense is, quite simply, sexist. For decades, there has been a trenchant feminist critique that the doctrine reflects and reinforces masculine norms of violence and shelters brutal domestic killers. The critique is so prominent that it appears alongside the doctrine itself in leading criminal law casebooks. The feminist critique of provocation embodies several claims about provocation's problematically gendered nature, including that the defense is steeped in chauvinist history, treats culpable sexist killers too leniently, discriminates against women, and expresses bad messages. This article offers a (likely provocative) defense of the provocation doctrine. While …
Domestic Violence Law And Feminism’S Identity Crisis: Toward A “Neo-Feminist” Legal Theory, Aya Gruber
Domestic Violence Law And Feminism’S Identity Crisis: Toward A “Neo-Feminist” Legal Theory, Aya Gruber
Aya Gruber
By many accounts, feminism is in crisis. Traditional second-wave feminists are an ever-dwindling group, attacked by conservatives for being too liberal and by progressives for being too conservative. Newer voices weighing in on classic feminist issues like work rights, family structure, and rape are seen as abandoning the feminist mission in favor of other considerations like class and race. Accordingly, the conventional wisdom seems to be that there are two opposing progressive groups that address women’s issues—feminists and those who have receded from feminism. To many, this apparent fracture is exemplified by theorizing about domestic violence, where mainstream feminists supportive …
A Distributive Theory Of Criminal Law, Aya Gruber
A Distributive Theory Of Criminal Law, Aya Gruber
Aya Gruber
In criminal law circles, the accepted wisdom is that there are two and only two true justifications of punishment―retributivism and utilitarianism. The multitude of moral claims about punishment can thus be reduced to two propositions: (1) Punishment should be imposed because defendants deserve it; and/or (2) punishment should be imposed because it makes society safer. At the same time, most penal scholars notice the trend in criminal law to de-emphasize intent, centralize harm, and focus on victims, but they largely write off this trend as an irrational return to antiquated notions of vengeance. This Article asserts that there is in …
Rape, Feminism, And The War On Crime, Aya Gruber
Rape, Feminism, And The War On Crime, Aya Gruber
Aya Gruber
Over the past several years, feminism has been increasingly associated with crime control and the incarceration of men. In apparent lock step with the movement of the American penal system, feminists have advocated a host of reforms to strengthen state power to punish gender-based crimes. In the rape context, this effort has produced mixed results. Sexual assault laws that adopt prevailing views of criminality and victimhood, such as predator laws, enjoy great popularity. However, reforms that target the difficulties of date rape prosecutions and seek to counter gender norms, such as rape shield and affirmative consent laws, are controversial, sporadically-implemented, …