Gender as a Factor in the Response
of the Law-Enforcement System to Violence Against Partners
Forthcoming in Sexuality and Culture, Vol. 8, Issue ?, (Transaction
Periodicals, 2004)
Grant A. Brown, D.Phil. (Oxon),
LL.B.
it is the worst oppression, that is done by colour of justice
Sir Edward Coke
A sign that says men only looks very different
on a bathroom door than on a courthouse door.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
Is Parkinsons the toughest opponent youve ever
faced, Muhammed?
someone asked. Toughest was my first wife, he said.
Former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammed Ali
Abstract
A great deal of sociological evidence has been
collected in the past three decades on the prevalence of abuse
among adult heterosexual partners in domestic relationships of
some degree of permanence. Partly as a result of this information,
partner abuse has been identified as an important social ill that
must be addressed aggressively through public-awareness campaigns,
the funding of a broad range of support services, and the re-training
of law-enforcement authorities including police, prosecutors,
and judges. However, in at least one important respect, these
policy initiatives diverge substantially from what the sociological
data which ostensibly motivates them would indicate: they have
been, to date, overwhelmingly gender specific. That is, partner
abuse is routinely portrayed and acted upon as though it were
almost exclusively about men abusing and victimizing innocent
women and, by extension, their children despite the overwhelming
sociological evidence that a significant amount of abuse is also
suffered by male partners. Persistent anecdotal reports from victims
and even some participants in the law-enforcement system suggest
that this ideological emphasis on the male as perpetrator has
had a deleterious effect on the impartial administration of justice,
resulting in men being treated much more harshly than women who
are accused of partner violence. This study attempts to determine
whether the anecdotes are scientifically supportable.
Footnote:
This report is written for a general audience
and does not presume any specialized training in sociology, statistics,
or Canadian law. Technical terms will be explained in the footnotes
when they are first used; however, a few non-standard terms of
art must be explained at the start. The focus of this study is
on how the law-enforcement system deals with putatively criminal
acts between adults in heterosexual relationships of some degree
of permanence. Thus the term partner includes married
and common-law spouses, as well as some couples who might not
meet the legal definition of a spouse; but it excludes persons
in dating or homosexual relationships. Because of the focus on
criminal behavior, as opposed to abuse more generally, the terms
partner violence or violence against partners
is meant to capture any act which could be classified as criminal,
whether or not charges were laid and even if the act is not inherently
violent (e.g. a non-violent breach of a restraining order). Partner
abuse is a broader term which includes partner violence
as well as non-criminal abusive behavior between partners. (Domestic
abuse is broader still, and includes abuse of children,
elders, and siblings. This is beyond the scope of the present
study.)
The Institutes of the Laws of England, vol. 2, 1628-1641.
City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc. (1985), 473 U.S.
432, 468-69.
Cam Cole, Boxing has a funny way of making friends,
National Post, 21 October 2002, A10.