Criminalisation of victims of male violence needs to end - everywhere

Criminalisation of victims of male violence needs to end – everywhere

Blaming, and punishing, women for the abuse they suffered at the hands of men is a global phenomenon.


Julie Bindel
Journalist, author and feminist campaigner

Published On 22 Dec 202322 Dec 2023

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Today, at least 57 percent of women in prison in the UK are survivors of domestic abuse, and for many of them, this abuse is directly linked to the reason for their incarceration, writes Bindel [Getty Images]

In the West, we are often told terrible stories about women in the Global South countries being subjected to male violence and then punished afresh by “community leaders” and the courts. Most feminists in Europe and the US, for example, would know that premarital sex is criminalised in Saudi Arabia and that hospitals and health centres are compelled to report the pregnancies of single women to police – including those resulting from rape. They would also know about “honour killings” of women and girls in countries like Albania and Kurdistan for breaking patriarchal rules, such as having sexual relationships outside of marriage. Some who decry such abuses and atrocities in the Global South, however, appear not to be aware that this type of sexist victim blaming is not confined to the Global South; it also happens in the Global North. So-called “honour killings” also happen in the UK, for example, within both conservative religious communities and secular ones.

I have long been working to raise awareness on this issue and prevent it happening to women in my home country, the United Kingdom. In 1990, I co-founded Justice for Women in response to the harsh treatment meted out to women who defended themselves against rape or sexual violence – by the criminal justice system, the media, and wider society. I had seen several cases of men killing their wives for spurious reasons, and walking free from court. Excuses such as “She nagged me”, or “I found her in bed with another man” were accepted by judges and jurors as reasonable grounds for men to “snap” and kill women. Meanwhile, women who were driven to kill or maim their male partners after years of violence, often in fear for their lives or those of their children, were treated as cold-blooded murderers and punished as such by British courts, targeted by the media, and shunned by society.

We have undoubtedly made some progress in shedding light on the issue in the past three decades, but the criminalisation of survivors of male violence in the UK, by the courts as well as society at large, is far from over. Today, at least 57 percent of women in prison in the UK are survivors of domestic abuse, and for many of them, this abuse is directly linked to the reason for their incarceration (while, in most cases, their abusers remain free). The true number is likely significantly higher because many choose not to disclose their victim status, even when it could help explain the motivations behind the crimes they are accused of. Despite this, criminal justice agencies rarely acknowledge that a woman has been a victim of male violence, and treat this as a mitigating factor, when prosecuting her for a related offence (including defending herself against the perpetrator).

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These days feminists are routinely blamed for exaggerating male violence, making women “scared of men”, and causing them to limit their lives by taking precautions. Meanwhile, women are blamed for being raped (“she was drinking/flirting/wearing revealing clothing”) or suffering domestic abuse (“she wound him up/enjoyed the drama”). Girls are blamed, and shamed, for being abused into prostitution. This victim blaming, still prevalent in most societies, reaches its ultimate form when women are punished and sent to prison for being victimised or defending themselves against their abusers. When we are blamed for what men do to us, we get a double dose of punishment – while our male abusers are handed free rein. This happens routinely in the Global South, but it happens in the North too. Lesbians in South Africa experience horrors like “punishment rape” for daring to reject men, but so do women in the UK. It is true that women are killed in Iran for supposed missteps like speaking to a man outside the family, but so do women in the UK – one woman is killed by a man known to her every three days in England and Wales. *************Men’s violence towards women and girls is global, and wherever it occurs, the blame is often diverted onto the victims. It is crucial that we speak of the rapist more than we do of the raped, and of the batterer rather than the battered. Let’s place the blame firmly on the guilty, and ensure we never, ever, look to the actions of the victims in an attempt to justify such atrocities against women. Women should never be criminalised and punished, anywhere, for being subjected to male violence or defending themselves against it.***********


https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/22/criminalisation-of-victims-of-male-violence-needs-to-end-everywhere