Law and Gender Commons^™

Home Is Where The Crime Is, I. Bennett Capers

Michigan Law Review

Think of home. Go on. Maybe not your parents' home, which for this reviewer would be enough to induce heavy breathing and general anxiety. Rather, think about the concept of home. Think about the idea of home. Think about Home with a capital letter. Think of home as in The Wizard of Oz and Dorothy's famous "There's no place like home." Think "home sweet home." Or "home is where the heart is." Go on. Of course, there may be other associations that come to mind when one thinks of home. There's security. Safety. Control. Home rule. After all, in the …

Gender And The Law: Mexican Legislation On Domestic Violence, Marta Torres Falcon

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Exporting Subjects: Globalizing Family Law Progress Through International Human Rights, Cyra Akila Choudhury

Michigan Journal of International Law

In our popular culture and social consciousness, women are no longer the second-class citizens they used to be. Magazines, television advertisements, and billboards featuring women show us how we have achieved independence, wealth, desirability, and our intelligence. We are no longer the supporting role in movies and entertainment but stars in our own right. For this, we can thank both changing society and the unrelenting work of many women who refused to bring the coffee for the boss. The women's movement in the United States has made large gains for women through the use of social activism and legal action. …

Confrontation And Domestic Violence Post-Davis: Is There And Should There Be A Doctrinal Exception, Eleanor Simon

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Close to five million intimate partner rapes and physical assaults are perpetrated against women in the United States annually. Domestic violence accounts for twenty percent of all non-fatal crime experienced by women in this county. Despite these statistics, many have argued that in the past six years the Supreme Court has "put a target on [the] back" of the domestic violence victim, has "significantly eroded offender accountability in domestic violence prosecutions," and has directly instigated a substantial decline in domestic violence prosecutions. The asserted cause is the Court's complete and groundbreaking re-conceptualization of the Sixth Amendment right of a criminal …

African-American Grandmothers: Does The Gender-Entrapment Theory Apply? Essay Response To Professor Beth Richie, Jessica Dixon Weaver

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Many African-American grandmothers are entrapped by the cycle of incarceration in poor black communities. This Essay explores whether the social and economic conditions that compel battered women to commit crimes also impact their mothers - who end up raising the children they leave behind. Professor Beth Richie's theory of gender entrapment as described in her book, “Compelled to Crime,” is not limited to incarcerated women who have been victims of domestic violence. African-American grandmothers who take on the role of kinship caregivers for their grandchildren are also entrapped by a complex interplay of race, gender, and class, making them vulnerable …

Domestic Violence And State Intervention In The American West And Australia, 1860-1930, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

This Article calls into question stereotypical assumptions about the presumed lack of state intervention in the family and the patriarchal violence of Anglo-American frontier societies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By analyzing previously unexamined cases of domestic assault and homicide in the American West and Australia, Professor Ramsey reveals a sustained (but largely ineffectual) effort to civilize men by punishing violence against women. Husbands in both the American West and Australia were routinely arrested or summoned to court for beating their wives in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Judges, police officers, journalists, and others expressed dismay …

A Diva Defends Herself: Gender And Domestic Violence In An Early Twentieth-Century Headline Trial, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

This short article was presented as part of a symposium on headline criminal trials, organized by St. Louis University School of Law in honor of Lawrence Friedman. It describes and analyzes the self-defense acquittal of opera singer Mae Talbot in Nevada in 1910 on charges of murdering her abusive husband. Based on extensive research into archival trial records and newspaper reports, the article discusses how the press, the court, and trial lawyers on both sides depicted the killing and Mae’s possible defenses. Without discounting the sensationalism and entertainment value, to a scandal-hungry public, of stories about violent marriages, I contend …

The Collateral Consequences Of Masculinizing Violence, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Before an enraged gunman fired thirty-six deadly shots into an exercise class filled with women, on August 4, 2009, in Pennsylvania, he blogged that his killing spree was the result of his failure to meet society’s expectations of him as a man. This violent act tragically affirms that hegemonic masculinity – a dominant form of masculinity whereby some types of men have power over women and over some other men – can directly cause violence against women and reveals both the underlying connection between masculinities scholarship and feminist scholarship and the value in exploring that linkage further in both theory …

Rethinking Consent In A Big Love Way, Cheryl Hanna

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article is based on a presentation at the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law as part of their symposium "Rhetoric & Relevance: An Investigation into the Present & Future of Feminist Legal Theory." In it, I explore the problem of categorical exclusions to the consent doctrine in private intimate relationships through the lens of the HBO series Big Love, which is about modern polygamy. There remains the normative question both after Lawrence v. Texas and in feminist legal theory of under what circumstances individuals should be able to consent to activity that takes place within the context of a …

Welcoming Women: Recent Changes In U.S. Asylum Law, Jillian Blake

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The Statue of Liberty, which has been called the "Mother of Exiles," stands as a reminder of one of the foundational ideals of U.S. immigration policy-providing refuge to the vulnerable. Women worldwide have new reason to believe in this promise, because victims of domestic violence may now have a better chance of being granted asylum in a U.S. immigration court.

Billions (Yes, With A B) For Prevention, Victim Services, Law Enforcement, Underserved Populations And The Courts, And Looking Ahead To Vawa Iv, Leslye Orloff, Claudia Bayliff, Lisalyn Jacobs, Lynn Hecht Schafran, Juley Fulcher

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

[panelist] I feel like I have gone on a trip down memory lane. I want to take us back in time to give you an idea of what it looked like for immigrant women, women of color, and underserved communities in 1994, in terms of access to services and assistance for domestic violence and sexual assault. In those days there were very few programs-and we could probably count them on two, maybe four hands nationally-that were working specifically and had expertise working with immigrant victims, non-English-speaking victims, and women of color victims. Those programs were isolated from each other. In …

Provoking Change: Comparative Insights On Feminist Homicide Law Reform, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

The provocation defense, which mitigates murder to manslaughter for killings perpetrated in the heat of passion, is one of the most controversial doctrines in the criminal law because of its perceived gender bias; yet most American scholars and lawmakers have not recommended that it be abolished. This Article analyzes trendsetting feminist homicide law reforms, including the abolition of the provocation defense in three Australian jurisdictions, places these reforms in historical context, and assesses their applicability to the United States. It ultimately advocates reintroducing the concept of justified emotion, grounded in modern equality principles and social values, as a requirement for …

Stop The Killing: Potential Courtroom Use Of A Questionnaire That Predicts The Likelihood That A Victim Of Intimate Partner Violence Will Be Murdered By Her Partner, Amanda Hitt, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

Judges in domestic cases often underestimate the risk to a mother and her children that an angry and abusive father or other intimate partner poses. In a recent Maryland case, for example, two judges refused to deny a father visitation or require that visitation be supervised, despite the fact that the father had threatened suicide. During the father’s unsupervised visitation, he drowned all three of his children, then attempted to kill himself.

The Danger Assessment tool (the D.A.) developed by a Johns Hopkins Nursing professor and validated by herself and other social scientists shows how much the father’s thoughts of …

Prisons Must Cease Re-Traumatizing Women: A Call For Gender-Responsive Programs That End The Cycle Of Abuse, Sally Abrahamson

Legal Writing Competition Winners

“They break us out there and then more in here. And they don't do anything to build us back up.” This is a quote from a woman serving thirty-one years for assault and crack-cocaine possession. Like many other incarcerated women, she has a history of being in domestically abusive relationships. Prison, she said, felt like an extension of feeling the same hopelessness she did before entering prison. Using drugs was a means to escape the reality of abuse and poverty. Her time in prison further disempowered her economically and socially, as she received no job-training and lost many of her …

Opuz V. Turkey: Europe's Landmark Judgment On Violence Against Women, Tarik Abdel-Monem

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Transnational Families In Crisis: An Analysis Of The Domestic Violence Rule In E.U. Free Movement Law, Adam Weiss

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay analyzes a concrete rule of European law that has emerged to address the problem of domestic violence within certain transnational families. The domestic violence rule is found in Article 13 of the European Community Free Movement Directive (the Directive), legislation that governs the rights of E.U. citizens and their family members to enter and reside in other E.U. Member States.6 The rule affects the rights of a discrete group: non-E.U. ("third-country national") family members of migrant E.U. citizens, that is, E.U. citizens who have moved to another E.U. Member State (the "host State") to exercise residence rights there. …

Failure To Arrest: A Pilot Study Of Police Response To Domestic Violence In Rural Illinois , Sara R. Benson

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

A Shift Toward Gender Equality In Prosecutions: Realizing Legitimate Enforcement Of Crimes Committed Against Women In Municipal And International Criminal Law, Tamara F. Lawson

Articles

A new era of law enforcement has emerged recognizing the importance of punishing gender-specific violence. This first wave of "gender-sensitive prosecutors" has changed the way crimes against women are handled in the criminal justice system. The enactment of gender neutralizing laws and policies has dramatically improved the enforcement of crimes against women and attempts to end the era of impunity. This Article addresses the changes in prosecutions and further considers international human rights treaties that require gender equality in law enforcement.

In criminal law, it is the willingness of a prosecutor to exercise his or her discretionary authority to file …

"It's Not Ok": New Zealand's Efforts To Eliminate Violence Against Women, Jeanmarie Fenrich, Jorge Contesse

Crowley Mission Reports

Over the last decade, New Zealand has made significant efforts to address an acute social problem—violence against women. In New Zealand, it is estimated that one in three women has been a victim of domestic violence. In an effort to combat the problem, New Zealand has enacted legislation and regulations which aim to prevent and eliminate domestic violence. It has also created visible public education campaigns calling upon people to stop “family violence” as it is called in New Zealand.

Refining The Meaning And Application Of "Dating Relationship" Language In Domestic Violence Statutes, Devon M. Largio

Vanderbilt Law Review

Many young people date in high school, and Lisa Santoro was no exception.' Her father Tom tells her story:

In January, 1994, Lisa started to date a guy [named "Dan"].... In the five months Lisa dated this guy, I never really understood why she was attracted to him.... Around June, when Lisa started to work at the swimming pool, she met another guy who was in charge of the pool .... Shortly after, Lisa [broke] up with Dan. Dan tried to get Lisa to go back to him, but Lisa had her mind made up.... On July 27th, Dan called …

Immigration Relief For Survivors Of Domestic Absue, Sexual Assault, Human Trafficking, And Other Crimes: A Violence Against Women Act 2005 Update, Leslye Orloff, Joanne Lin, Ericka Echavarria

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA 2005), which President Against and Department Women Bush signed into law on January 5, 2006, built on the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (Title IV of the Violence Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) and the 2000 Battered Immigrant Women Protection Act (part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act) by expanding immigration relief to new categories of crime victims.' In this article we discuss the eligibility requirements for VAWA self-petitioning, VAWA cancellation of removal, "U" interim relief for certain immigrant crime victims, …

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.

Advocating For The Employment Rights Of Victims Of Domestic Violence And Sexual Assault, Deborah A. Widiss, Robin R. Runge

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Falling To Pieces: New York State Civil Legal Remedies Available To Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Survivors Of Domestic Violence, Sharon Stapel

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rocks, Hard Places, And Unconventional Domestic Violence Victims: Expanding Availability Of Civil Orders Of Protection In New York, Sarah E. Warne

NYLS 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 …

The Law Of Unintended Consequences: The Far-Reaching Effects Of Same-Sex Marriage Ban Amendments, C. Susie Lorden

ExpressO

In 2004, thirteen states passed same-sex marriage ban amendments in response to a Massachusetts ruling from the previous year that sanctioned marriage for gay couples. Most of the amendments contained two prongs that defined marriage and also prohibited legal recognition of unmarried relationships in an attempt to avoid marriage substitutes, such as civil unions.

These amendments not only blatantly discriminate against same-sex couples by barring them from marriage, but the amendments also insidiously cause further damage by using undefined and ambiguous language capable of discriminating against gays and lesbians in ways not admitted by the proponents and not intended by …

Legal Archaeology And Feminist Legal Theory: A Case Study Of A Violation Of A Protective Order , Debora L. Threedy

ExpressO

This article explores the intersection between the field of legal archaeology and feminist legal theory through the medium of a case study of the prosecution of the violation of a protective order.

Both legal archaeology and feminist theory employ “bottom up,” or grounded, theorizing; that is, they begin with specific context and move from there to generalization or abstraction, rather than the other way around. And both operate from a critical perspective that consciously challenges what we think we know about how law operates. For example, both are interested in exploring how systemic vulnerabilities, such as conscious or unconscious gender …

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, …