Imprisoning women who resist abusers cannot solve intimate violence

Evidence

Within the United States, the “battered women’s syndrome” legal defense reflects an attempt to argue that a woman who kills an abusive spouse should not be convicted of murder. This defense has been abundantly criticized, both by detractors and proponents of feminism; the former do not want to recognize the pervasiveness and dangers of intimate violence against women and the latter challenge the idea that the legitimacy of this defense resides in the assertion that those who kill their batterers are not responsible for their actions. The point feminist movements attempt to make—regardless of their specific positions on battered women’s syndrome—is that violence against women is a pervasive and complicated social problem that cannot be solved by imprisoning women who fight back against their abusers. Thus, a vast range of alternative strategies of minimizing violence against women—within intimate relationships and within relationships to the state— should be the focus of our concern. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 293

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Women who are punished are seen as more aberrant and threatening than men — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 174; Domestic violence against women is continuous with state corporal punishment

Related

• Women who are punished are seen as more aberrant and threatening than men (similarity 0.82)
• Sexual abuse operates as an institutionalized, unsanctioned dimension of women’s punishment. (similarity 0.82)
• Women face unacknowledged state punishment outside formal prison (similarity 0.82)
• Women have been punished more through psychiatric institutions than prisons (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Domestic violence against women is continuous with state corporal punishment #qualifies (0.60)
• Women who are punished are seen as more aberrant and threatening than men #complicates (0.55) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 174