Woman Crime and Criminology

Woman Crime and Criminology

How have social views, the law, law enforcement, and health care evolved concerning rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence?

Introduction

Domestic violence, rape, and sexual abuse are the leading gender-related violations that have a long history of the practice, but fewer years as a criminal offense. Domestic violence has become a crime recently in most jurisdictions in the world. Historically, violence against women in marriage and the intimate relationship was something tolerated in society. It was the norm rather than the exception. The feminist movements of the 1970s changed the narrative until the criminal justice system began to treat it as a crime justifying interventions by the state. Therefore, there are many changes in social views, the law, and law enforcement concerning rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence.

Definition

When violence takes place in an intimate relationship, men are the aggressors, and the women are victims. However, a few cases involve women as aggressors and men as victims. In most cases, where women hurt their sexual partners, it is in self-defense. In most situations, women react violently after suffering for long periods in the hand of men. However, they suffer the consequences of their action including imprisonment, when their revenge missions cause the death of a person.

Domestic violence is a cultural phenomenon that is common in most cultures. The emergence of monogamous relationships was supposed to provide women with protection from the violation of their sexual partners.

It also has the advantage of giving the husbands the identity and rights as fathers. However, it has the limitation of creating a dependency syndrome for the wives in the social, legal, and economic spheres. In a monogamous environment, the role of the wife was to satisfy the needs of the husband, bear children, and do household duties. In the past, men had the power to discipline all members of their households, including their wives and children. Therefore, they could justify any form of violence towards women as discipline for an Indi splined spouse or child.

The English common law allowed a man to chastise their wives reasonably. Therefore, a husband could not kill their wife in the name of punishing them. The American colonies adopted the tradition, where it became possible for a husband to moderately chastise their wives. As a result, the early judicial system in the United States did not entertain cases of domestic violence. In most western countries, the subjugation of the wife was evident in the marriage contract. Through marriage, a woman was supposed to give up her name, leave her residence to reside in the husband’s home, and be a dependent. In the marriage vow, the woman was supposed to honor, obey, and love her husband. Thus, the marriage contract made restrictions on the woman to make them legally and economically dependent on their husbands. These powers made it easy for men to perpetuate the culture of domestic violence because the law and society allowed them.

A significant change in the attitude of the justice system to domestic violence began towards the end of the 19th century. The rights of the husband to chastise the wife as well as restrict their lives began to fade away. Although there was a debate about physical abuse in a spousal relationship, there were no significant changes up to the 1970s. The activities of feminist activists in the 1970s brought new momentum to the debate. Advocacy groups took up issues of rape and domestic violence, encouraging law enforcement agencies to consider them as criminal activities. Feminists of the 70s transformed rape, domestic violence from being a private matter to a public issue deserving the attention of the judicial system. As a result, the impunity of the perpetrators was challenged, and it was not business as usual. From that moment going forward, perpetrators of violence against women had to answer for their actions.

Apart from the legal system, society’s perception of rape, domestic violence, among others, has evolved over time. Although the levels of sensitivity towards the victims of sexual offenses have increased, rape is still a hotly contested issue in most societies (Elaine et al., 2016). For example, the 1980s and 1990 witnessed an increase in battered women shelters. There were also long-term measures such as reorienting gender roles towards equality and started the legal reforms to the institution of marriage to make it a better institution for the two parties. Further changes were directed towards restructuring the justice system and its response to domestic violence. Attention was to go to all departments responsible such as the prosecution, the police, and the judiciary.

What myths have been dispelled concerning the victims of gender abuse?

One issue that significantly impacts survivors of gender abuse is the existence of myths. Myths are prejudicial, stereotypes, and false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists. These myths refer to foundations that rapists use for sexual aggression towards women. Some of the common myths include that rape is about sex and something private not worth of public attention. Others suggest that rape victims deserve the ordeal because of their appearance and neglect of safety issues. At the same time, others suggest that individuals make false reports to revenge. Others are that only strangers that lurk in dark alleys rape people. Therefore, it was necessary to dispel these myths to provide solutions to the challenges.

It is critical to deal with the myths because they have negative consequences in dealing with the problem. People who accept and believe in myths are likely to commit the acts themselves, blame the victim, and accept interpersonal violence. It is also for such a person to continue defending the perpetrators. These myths still affect the victims of sexual assault. In most cases, the perpetuation of victim-blaming traumatizes the survivors and may prevent them from reporting their crimes.

How do these myths impede the investigation, prosecution, and conviction of gender-based crimes by the criminal justice system?

Domestic violence, rape, and sexual abuse are some of the most challenging crimes to investigate, prosecute, and convict. Domestic violence involves assaults and extremely controlling behavior within the local environment. In most cases, domestic violence refers to the physical attack by a husband on his wife. However, modern laws include abuse that is perpetrated by any partner, whether gay or straight, regardless of all marital status. Power and control are some of the tools that victims fear after being battered. Sexual abuse involves forced sexual assault, rape, or pressure to have sex when the partner does not want to consent.

Myths make it very difficult for victims of rape and other forms of sexual and domestic violence to report the cases. It is one of the issues that impede investigations. Most perpetrators of violence thrive on threats and intimidation. They threaten their victims with more violence if they dare report the events. Therefore, most survivors fear reprisal from the abusers and are always reluctant to report to the police (Logan & Valente, 2015). In some jurisdictions, there a nuisance laws that allow landlords to evict tenants who call police on many occasions. At times, it is difficult to get witnesses to when police are investigating domestic violence because the fights take place indoors, and family members may be unwilling to take sides in a conflict involving family members. Many survivors also report the reluctance of law enforcement officers to take up cases and investigate them thoroughly because of biases. All these reasons, among others, cause women to choose to remain silent to avoid embarrassment. Therefore, women overcome immense challenges to report domestic violence and other forms of sexual assault.

In most cases, police are the first respondents to domestic violence. If the experience is not adequate, most likely, the investigation would fail and expose the victim to the danger of reencountering the offender. Victims who have a bad experience on the first encounter with the police may never use the criminal justice system in the future (Logan & Valente, 2015). Before the 1960s, the primary response from the police was non-intervention. Today, police still exercise discretion on issues of domestic violence. Any report of rape, sexual assault may not result in an arrest if the police do not agree with the victim. In some cases, they accuse the victims of facilitating the abuse by going back to the abusive partner. As a result, they may not arrest the person based on the behavior of the abusive partner but on unnecessary issues.

The behavior of investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating officers may be determining the prospects of a case entering the justice system or not. Laws made to combat domestic violence may not be implemented as intended by lawmakers as long as implementing agents do not think that the problem deserves serious consideration. As long implementing agencies do not view domestic violence as a severe violation of the rights of the victim, then it is difficult for the police to activate the legal process. Some individuals may be tolerant to physical aggression and rationalize that domestic violence is punishment for women for marital inadequacies. Such individuals may view domestic violence as a civil matter for arbitration by the divorce courts and not by criminal courts.

Practitioners in the justice system may also hold diverse attitudes towards domestic violence that may interfere with their interpretation of the law. It may also interfere with their willingness to implement the law and protect the victims. Although it is possible to overcome these attitudes during training, some local perceptions may interfere with their desire to enforce the rule of law. The ultimate purpose of police action is to take cases to court for effective prosecution. The element of deterrence can only be practical if the arrested offenders are tried, convicted, and punished.

The standard practice of handling domestic violence involves court cases and plea bargaining behind closed doors. In most cases, the processes do not satisfy the victims and their communities. According to van Wormer (2009), the end of a prosecution process does not meet the needs of the victims. It makes it necessary to try alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and that is why restorative justice is a critical process that the judiciary can follow. Although it is essential to punish an offender of any form of crime, it is more crucial to satisfy the needs of the victims and restore them to their original state of mind before the psychological torture after the violence. Therefore, restorative justice provides a new approach to solving gender-related violence.

At the same time, restorative justice can take be a process that women consider to address the challenges that they encounter regarding physical and sexual abuse. In most cases, the starting point of all disputes is an adversarial, offender oriented practices of obtaining justice. However, the dissatisfaction with the system has made it necessary for women and their advocates to consider alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. The restorative justice system is an alternative source that concentrates on solving the dispute and reconciling the parties and not on punishing the offender. It is a process that has a foundation in the social work tradition (van Wormer, 2009). Thus, restorative justice is one of the alternative dispute resolution mechanisms that a survivor can use to seek a settlement.

What new challenges does society face?

Cyber bullying, victimization, and stalking enabled by technologies are some of the challenges that society is confronted with today. In most learning institutions, children are bullying others and causing some to commit suicide. In most cases, friends and classmates are the ones who lead the bullies, making it hard for victims to survive. In the past, students and their parents would solve bullying problems by transferring to new schools. However, the advent of technology makes it easy for peers to reach out to their former colleagues through the internet and social media networks such as Facebook. Most children and teenagers who commit suicide do so because of online bullying. Thus, one of the deadliest challenges that law enforcement agencies are dealing are the issues of online bullying by teenagers,

Cyber bullying, victimization, and stalking are some of the challenging problems that law enforcement officers have to address regularly. State law enforcement agencies have difficulties charging teenagers who go hurt others because they may lack the statutes to use to do so. For example, some states, such as Florida, do not have laws on bullying. As a result, some behaviors that cause the death of other people may escape punishment because of the inadequacies of the prevailing laws. While it is possible for the conduct of teenagers to cause the death of their friends, they may escape punishment because it is an emerging area in the criminal justice system in the world.

Therefore, technology-enabled female victimization is one of the challenges that the criminal justice system has to deal with today. The country needs to find a mechanism to address the problems that technology-enabled crimes provide law enforcement agencies. Government agencies cannot allow criminals to escape punishment for a lack of laws. It is essential once a state or federal agencies discover the presence of gaps in the law to facilitate the passage of such statutes to save women from emerging crimes.

Another issue that society is addressing today is the issue of self-defense that is difficult to prove in a court of law. From the example provided, it is notable that a woman may decide to fight a person who torments them daily. However, the approach that they use to achieve this objective may make them murder suspect. As the case of North Carolina vs. Norman (1989) shows, Marcia Norman was a victim of domestic violence for a long time at the hands of her husband, Mitchel. Still, when she decided to kill him, she was convicted to life imprisonment. The issue of killing in self-defense is one of the problems that modern society has to confront. In this specific case, Norman was a victim of domestic violence for a long time. All her plans to get a solution to the problem were not successful, and she resorted to killing the husband to avoid further domestic violence. Society must consider addressing to enable such persons to escape harsh penalties.

Conclusion

Domestic violence, sexual assault, and rape are some of the leading challenges that women encounter in the world today. Culture has always allowed domestic violence against women as a means of maintaining order in a home. Common law made it legal for men to chastise their wives, and the culture spread to the United States and other British colonies. According to Common Law marriage contracts, the women were subjects to their husbands. Therefore, there was no legal basis for women to lodge complaints against their husbands. However, over time, that has changed, and domestic violence and other crimes against women are recognized as crimes. Today, men cannot brutalize women and go unpunished as long as police take action in advance. Although the criminal justice system has numerous weaknesses in addressing the issue, it is work in progress deserving the support of all stakeholders. At the same time, the criminal justice system is facing numerous challenges such as technology victimization of women that are difficult to prosecute. Yet, it is hurting young girls and causing death.

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Correctness