The Agencies of Abuse

Intimate Abusers' Experience of Presumptive Arrest and Prosecution

Bibliographic Data

ID4085656
AuthorsKeith Guzik (Bloomfield College, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume42
Issue1
Pages111-144
Publication date2008-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1540-5893.2008.00336.x
OpenAlexW1997009414
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited48

Presumptive arrest and prosecution policies are designed to eradicate domestic violence by disrupting abusive relationships and transforming the subjectivities of victimized women and abusive men. Using in-depth interviews with 30 persons arrested and prosecuted for domestic violence, this article examines the power of presumptive policies by exploring how intimate abusers experience them. The study finds that while the police and courts are able to secure arrests and convictions on domestic violence cases, nearly all the respondents in this study understand their punishments as unfair sanctions meted out by an unjust local legal system rather than as the consequences of their own actions. These injustice claims emerge from abusers' group identities as well as the very practices through which the police and courts gain authority over them. These findings demonstrate that the power of the law as a force for social change may be more limited than some have claimed. In addition, they reinforce calls to reform society's response to intimate violence through procedures that can go further in empowering victims and having offenders recognize their responsibility for violence

Abusive relationship · Criminology · Domestic violence · Economic Justice · Injustice · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Power (physics · Sanctions · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Law · Medicine · Psychology

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