Digital Commons Network^™

Battered Women, Homicide Convictions, And Sentencing: The Case For Clemency, Carol Jacobsen, Kammy Mizga, Lynn O'Orio

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

For battered women who are forced to kill their attackers, unequal treatment by the law and gendered modes of punishment often lead to unfair convictions and sentences. In a study conducted by the Michigan Battered Women's Clemency Project, startling levels of discrimination in the courts against women who were victims of domestic violence were revealed. In this study, victims of domestic violence had higher conviction rates and longer sentences than all other defendants charged with homicide. The criminal and legal systems have failed to protect battered women from being killed or being forced to kill. Clemency remains the only hope …

Mail Dominance: A Critical Look At The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act And Its Sufficiency In Curtailing Mail-Order Bride Domestic Abuse, Holli B. Newsome

Campbell Law Review

This Comment will look through a circumscribed lens at the mailorder bride domestic abuse in the United States that is facilitated by the IMB industry and will also consider the sufficiency of IMBRA in curtailing the problem. This comment will: (1) give background information on the IMB industry; (2) examine -mail-order bride domestic abuse and how IMBs facilitate the problem; (3) explain IMBRA and its goals; and (4) take a critical look at IMBRA and give recommendations to further prevent mail-order bride domestic abuse in this country.

The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act: Protecting Foreign Women Or Punishing American Men?, Erin K. Pleasant

Campbell Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Feminist War On Crime, Aya Gruber

Publications

One of the most celebrated successes of the feminist movement is its lasting impact on domestic violence criminal laws. Today, society has moved from discourse characterizing domestic abuse as legitimate or merely a private problem to a belief that battering is a heinous crime, more egregious than garden-variety assault. I know all too well how far the pendulum has swung, having practiced as a public defender in the District of Columbia domestic violence system. Day after day, prosecutors proceeded with cases against the wishes of victims, resulting in the mass incarceration of young black men. Could this have been the …

Annotated Legal Bibliography On Gender

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Hearing The Sexual Assault Complaints Of Women With Mental Disabilities: Consent, Capacity, And Mistaken Belief, Janine Benedet, Isabel Grant

All Faculty Publications

Women with mental disabilities experience high rates of sexual assault. The authors trace the history of the criminal law's treatment of cases involving such acts in order to evaluate whether the substantive law of sexual assault is meeting the needs of this group of women. In particular, the authors focus on the legal issues of consent, capacity, and mistaken belief. The authors situate this discussion in the context of current debates in feminist and critical disability theory, grounding the theory in scholarly research on sexual assault of women with mental disabilities. In considering the law's treatment of sexual violence against …

Hearing The Sexual Assault Complaints Of Women With Mental Disabilities: Evidentiary And Procedural Issues, Janine Benedet

All Faculty Publications

When a woman with a mental disability makes a complaint of sexual assault, she must confront a criminal trial process that was not designed in contemplation of her as a witness. The requirements of repeated testimony under oath and the ability to be cross-examined are not always well-suited to the particular needs and capacities of women with mental disabilities. These problems are magnified by the tendency to infantilize women with mental disabilities, thereby diminishing their credibility and depicting them as hypersexual when they engage in any sexual activity. These stereotypes also manifest themselves in the application of evidentiary rules relating …

Using Federal And State Laws To Promote Secure Housing For Survivors Of Domestic Violence, Deborah A. Widiss, Emily J. Martin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Domestic Violence And Legal Reforms In Nigeria: Prospects And Challenges, Itoro Eze-Anaba

ExpressO

The article focuses on the challenges for women’s rights activists attempting to provide a better legal regime for victims of domestic violence in Nigeria. It is my desire to provide a resource material on the issue of domestic violence for activists, policy makers, legislators and law reformers who are engaged in providing a better legal framework for the protection and promotion of women’s rights in a developing country like Nigeria. Having worked extensively on this issue, the article documents my experience on law reform advocacy in Nigeria.

Fear Of Acquaintance Versus Stranger Rape As A "Master Status": Towards Refinement Of The "Shadow Of Sexual Assault", Pamela Wilcox, Carol E. Jordan, Adam J. Pritchard

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Using a sample of 1,010 women from a southeastern state university, we explore whether associations between fear of sexual assault and other crime-specific fears vary based on presumed victim-offender relationship. More specifically, we assess the extent to which fear of stranger- and acquaintance-perpetrated sexual assaults differ in the extent to which they are correlated with fear of other crime victimizations. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that both fear of stranger-perpetrated sexual assault and fear of acquaintance- perpetrated sexual assault were positively associated with nearly all other crimespecific fears under examination. However, associations were particularly strong between fear of sexual assault …

Pregnancy & Policing: Are They Compatible?, Karen J. Kruger

ExpressO

A paper advocating that law enforcement agencies provide adequate accommodations and legal protections to women officers who become pregnant.

To Catch A Sex Thief: The Burden Of Performance In Rape And Sexual Assault Trials, Corey Rayburn Yung

ExpressO

Despite decades of efforts to reform American rape law, prosecution and conviction rates remain low compared to similar crimes. While activists led legislatures to adopt important statutory changes for rape and sexual assault, only modest effects in the levels of sexual violence have been observed. Nonetheless, reform-minded scholars continue to focus on statutory and rule tinkering as a means to quell sexual violence.

This article argues against the commonly-held belief that the crucial factors in determining the outcome of rape trials are substantive and procedural in nature. Rather, the issues of performance, representation, and language often pre-determine the outcomes of …

Conceptualizing Violence Against Pregnant Women, Deborah Tuerkheimer

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

He Said-She Said: On Credibility And The New Reason, Nancy Rourke

ExpressO

The traditional wisdom in the field of evidence holds that, if there is a direct contradiction in the testimony of two witnesses, one of them must be lying. The jury is to discover which version is more credible. The traditional wisdom is wrong. This article uses an actual criminal case to establish that a direct contradiction in testimony can arise from another source - a fundamental difference of conceptual frame. In this case, both witnesses were telling the truth as they knew it, but were talking past one another. Words that were 100% true in the victim's conceptual frame were …

In The Best Interest Of The Child, Ellen L. Buckwalter

ExpressO

Each year more than 200,000 children in the United States are abducted by family members. When a child is abducted across international borders, the difficulties are compounded. Since the late 1970s, The Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues has been contacted in approximately 16,000 cases involving children who were either abducted from the United States or prevented from returning to the U.S. by one of their parents.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“the Convention”) adopted on October 24, 1980, reflects a worldwide concern about the harmful effects that parental kidnapping has on children …

The Punishment Of Dixie Shanahan: Is There Justice For Battered Women Who Kill?, Leigh Goodmark

ExpressO

The article explores the prevailing theories justifying criminal punishment in the United States through the lens of the case of Dixie Shanahan, an Iowa woman who was sentenced to fifty years imprisonment for killing her abusive spouse after nineteen years of battering. The article begins with a detailed examination of the life of Dixie Shanahan and places her within the context of the literature on battered women who kill. The piece then looks at both retributivist and utilitarian justifications for punishment and concludes that only a retributivist rationale justifies the punishment of Ms. Shanahan and other battered women who kill, …

To Protect Or To Serve: Confidentiality, Client Protection And Domestic Violence, Dana Harrington-Conner

ExpressO

This article addresses the ethical dilemma of whether and when the attorney for an adult victim of domestic violence can or should disclose confidential communications for the protection of his or her own client.

Advocates maintain that domestic violence is the single major cause of injury to women in the United States. The risks are undeniable. An attorney representing a client who remains in or voluntarily returns to a violent relationship may confront conflicting ethical duties because it is difficult, if not impossible, for the attorney to determine which cases will end in further violence and which will not.

This …

Loyalty's Reward — A Felony Conviction: Recent Prosecutions Of High-Status Female Offenders, Michelle S. Jacobs

UF Law Faculty Publications

Between 2001 and 2004, six high-status women were charged with crimes in connection with corporate criminal cases. The public is familiar with some of them, although not all of their cases have been covered equally in the press. With the exception of an occasional article now and then mentioning the exploding rates of female incarceration, women's crime tends to be invisible to the public eye. The statistical data the government collects and analyzes on women and crime will be discussed. This article will focus on the prosecution of the individual cases of Lea Fastow, Betty Vinson, and Martha Stewart. Their …

Girl Talk--Examining Racial And Gender Lines In Juvenile Justice, Kim Taylor-Thompson

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

This Bridge Called Our Backs: An Introduction To “The Future Of Critical Race Feminism”, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

On April 1, 2005, the U.C. Davis Law Review hosted in its annual symposium an extremely distinguished group of scholars, who addressed central theories of Critical Race Feminism (“CRF”) in a daylong series of inspiring, thought-provoking, cutting-edge, and captivating presentations. The panelists at the symposium — in front of a packed room of students, professors, and local residents — delved into issues as diverse as the unique role of immigrant women in community economic development, societal failure to deal with domestic violence from a multidimensional perspective, the proposal of a contractual good faith claim based on Professors Devon Carbado and …

Gender Equality, Social Values And Provocation Law In The United States, Canada And Australia, Caroline A. Forell

ExpressO

In this article I examine and compare the partial defense of provocation as it applies to domestic homicide in Australia, Canada, and the United States on both the gendered-male basis of jealous rage and gendered-female basis of fear. I explain why substantive equality, prevalent under Canadian constitutional law, has not resulted in woman-friendly provocation rules in Canada and the United States and why Australia is the leader in incorporating substantive equality into its provocation doctrine. I conclude that the main reason why some Australian jurisdictions have abolished provocation and others have female-friendly versions of the doctrine is that, unlike Canada …

Women In Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Dilemmas And Directions, Naomi R. Cahn

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Reappraising The Nuremberg Trials And Their Legacy: The Role Of Victims In International Law, Yael Danieli

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Superstition-Based Injustice In Africa And The United States: The Use Of Provocation As A Defense For Killing Witches And Homosexuals, Jennifer Dumin

ExpressO

This Article examines two different instances where strong cultural and religious beliefs suggest that an individual is justified in taking another’s life. Focusing primarily on South Africa and the United States, it argues that the rationale used to defend those who kill suspected witches and those who kill suspected homosexuals is the same – merely because a criminal holds a belief that the victim is evil, the criminal is somehow entitled to a lesser punishment. In the United States, those who readily recognize the absurdity of the witchcraft defense may have some difficulty in recognizing the same level of absurdity …

Violence Against Women: An Obstacle To Equality, Sheila Dauer

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Lessons Unlearned: Women Offenders, The Ethics Of Care, And The Promise Of Restorative Justice, Marie A. Failinger

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article focuses on the reality that women's relationality, and particularly their relationships with men in their lives, profoundly affects the behavior that lands them in the criminal justice system. The author argues that restorative justice, which is essentially grounded on an ethical understanding of crime and treats the offender an as interacting subject/agent, is a necessary avenue of response to most women offenders' crimes, and that corrections must go beyond a psychological approach that treats crimes as a form of illness, or a systematic model which attempts primarily to rectify deficits in women's social situation.

Blue Mourning: Postpartum Psychosis And The Criminal Insanity Defense, Waking To The Reality Of Women Who Kill Their Children, 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 515 (2006), Jessica Butterfield

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Manson V. Brathwaite: The Supreme Court's Misunderstanding Of Eyewitness Identification, 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 539 (2006), Ruth Yacona

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New "Fetal Protection": The Wrong Answer To The Crisis Of Inadequate Health Care For Women And Children, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article will expand upon the feminist critique by focusing on children's health as well as the health and liberty interests of their mothers. In the first part of this article, I examine the legal and cultural underpinnings of “fetal protection” and explore its current manifestations. In the second part, I place “fetal protection” in a broader context, documenting the ways in which American law currently promotes fetal life, while simultaneously neglecting the lives and health of born children. The third part of the article offers concrete recommendations about how government, both state and federal, can actually achieve the goal …

Comments: Who Turned Out The Lights?: How Maryland Laws Fail To Protect Victims Of Domestic Violence From Third-Party Abuse, Anique Drouin

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.