Homicide, Gender and Responsibility


Book Description

The crime of homicide has long animated academic debate, community concern and political attention. The discussion has often centered on the perceived (in)adequacy of legal responses to homicide, questions of culpability, and divergent representations of victims and offenders. Within this, notions of gender, responsibility and justice are pivotal. This edited collection builds on existing scholarship by examining these concerns not only in the context of the ‘private’ world of domestic murder but also in the more ‘public’ world of the state, the corporation, war, and genocide. In so doing this book draws from key frameworks of criminological thought, legal analysis and empirical evidence to critically examine the relationship between homicide, gender and responsibility. Bringing together leading international criminology and legal scholars, this collection provides a unique contribution to the academic and policy engagement with what is, more often than not, an ordinary and mundane crime. Analysing the crime in a variety of different social contexts alongside an in-depth and critical analysis of the interconnections between the ordinary act of lethal violence, gender and notions of responsibility, this book will be of interest to students, scholars and policymakers working in criminology and socio-legal studies.




Gender, Homicide, and the Politics of Responsibility


Book Description

Gender, Homicide, and the Politics of Responsibility explores the competing and contradictory understandings of violence against women and men's responsibility. It situates these within the personal and political intersections of neoliberal and 'postfeminist' imperatives of individualisation, choice, and empowerment. As violence against women has become a national and international policy priority, feminist concerns about violence against women, and men's responsibility, have entered the mainstream only to be articulated in politically contradictory ways. This book explores themes of responsibility for violence, and the social and legal consequences that men and women uniquely or differently encounter. By drawing on high-profile cases of homicide, an extensive literature on feminist perspectives on violence, and compelling focus group discussions, the book examines the politicised claims regarding the 'responsibility' of men and women as both victims and offenders in intimate relationships. Deploying a range of interdisciplinary approaches, it utilises a blend of cultural theory and psychosocial analysis to offer an account of the infiltration of postfeminist and neoliberal sensibilities of individualism and responsibilisation in the social, legal, and interpersonal imaginary. The book makes contributions to several fields, such as the current public policy initiatives to hold men accountable for violence against women; understanding public attitudes to violence against women; and contextualising the challenges faced by a number of feminist reforms that seek to address these issues. An accessible and compelling read, Gender, Homicide, and the Politics of Responsibility will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, gender studies and those interested in understanding the debates surrounding violence against women, violence by women, and the social construction of responsibility and responsibilisation.




Gender, Homicide, and the Politics of Responsibility


Book Description

Gender, Homicide, and the Politics of Responsibility explores the competing and contradictory understandings of violence against women and men’s responsibility. It situates these within the personal and political intersections of neoliberal and ‘postfeminist’ imperatives of individualisation, choice, and empowerment. As violence against women has become a national and international policy priority, feminist concerns about violence against women, and men’s responsibility, have entered the mainstream only to be articulated in politically contradictory ways. This book explores themes of responsibility for violence, and the social and legal consequences that men and women uniquely or differently encounter. By drawing on high-profile cases of homicide, an extensive literature on feminist perspectives on violence, and compelling focus group discussions, the book examines the politicised claims regarding the ‘responsibility’ of men and women as both victims and offenders in intimate relationships. Deploying a range of interdisciplinary approaches, it utilises a blend of cultural theory and psychosocial analysis to offer an account of the infiltration of postfeminist and neoliberal sensibilities of individualism and responsibilisation in the social, legal, and interpersonal imaginary. The book makes contributions to several fields, such as the current public policy initiatives to hold men accountable for violence against women; understanding public attitudes to violence against women; and contextualising the challenges faced by a number of feminist reforms that seek to address these issues. An accessible and compelling read, Gender, Homicide, and the Politics of Responsibility will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, gender studies and those interested in understanding the debates surrounding violence against women, violence by women, and the social construction of responsibility and responsibilisation.




Global Study on Homicide 2013


Book Description

The Global Study on Homicide 2013 is based on comprehensive data from more than 200 countries/territories, and examines and analyses patterns and trends in homicide at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels. Such analysis is fundamental to understanding the various factors and dynamics that drive homicide, so that measures can be developed to reduce violent crime. The Study provides a typology of homicide, including homicide related to crime, coexistence-related homicide, and socio-political homicide. The nature of crime in several countries emerging from conflict, the role of various mechanisms in killing, and the response of the criminal justice system to homicide are also analyzed. A further chapter examines homicide at the sub-national level, and includes analysis at the city-level for selected global cities.




Homicide Law Reform, Gender and the Provocation Defence


Book Description

This book critically examines the operation of the partial defence of provocation in a range of comparative international jurisdictions. Centrally concerned with conceptual questions of gender, justice and the role of denial in the criminal justice system, Fitz-Gibbon explores the divergent approaches taken to reforming the law of provocation.




When Women Kill


Book Description

A fascinating profile of female homicide offenders emerges from this analysis of the characteristics of women murderers in six cities in the United States, including the circumstances of the murders, the role of the victims, the role of the perpetrators, and their fates in court.




Femicide across Europe


Book Description

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Femicide, the killing of women and girls because of their gender, was until recently included in the category ‘homicide’, obscuring the special features of this social and gendered phenomenon. However, the majority of murders of women are perpetrated by men whom they know from family ties and are the result of intimate partner violence or so-called 'honour' killings. This book is the first one on femicide in Europe and presents the findings of a four-year project discussing various aspects of femicide. Written by leading international scholars with an interdiscplinary perspective, it looks at the prevention programmes and comparative quantitative and qualitative data collection, as well as the impact of culture. It proposes the establishment of a European Observatory on Femicide as a new direction for the future, showing the benefits of cross-national collaboration, united to prevent the murder of women and girls.




Coercive Control


Book Description

Drawing on cases, Stark identifies the problems with our current approach to domestic violence, outlines the components of coercive control, and then uses this alternate framework to analyse the cases of battered women charged with criminal offenses directed at their abusers.




A New Homicide Act for England and Wales?


Book Description

This consultation paper reviews the law relating to homicide in England and Wales, and sets out a number of provisional proposals in order to establish a more rational and coherent framework of legislation. Issues discussed include: the existing law and problems with it; the definition of murder and manslaughter; partial defences including provocation, diminished responsibility and duress; the fault element in murder and the concept of intention; and the doctrine of double-effect. The paper proposes the creation of a new Homicide Act (to replace the Homicide Act 1957) to establish clear definitions of murder and the partial defences to it, as well as defining manslaughter, within a graduated system of offences (the ladder principle) to reflect seriousness of offence and degrees of mitigation. For example, the offence of murder should be divided into two categories, of 'first degree murder' (with a mandatory life sentence) and 'second degree' (with a discretionary life sentence maximum). Responses to the consultation paper proposals should be received by 13.04.2006.




Women, Murder and Justice


Book Description

Women, Murder and Justice examines from a feminist perspective, the legal treatment of women who kill their partners in England. Through an exploration of Crown Prosecution Service files, an in-depth comparative examination of the circumstances in which women and men kill is provided. The book highlights gender differences in the act of murder, the criminal justice system's negotiation of these differences, and the development of feminist strategies to alter the legal structure for women who kill.