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Women in the Law, Women Outside the Law? Gendered Justice, Gendered Law

NCJ Number
140969
Journal
Deviance et societe Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1992) Pages: 263-270
Author(s)
T Pitch
Date Published
1992
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The article attempts to situate women in a male-dominated justice and to reconcile gender differences within the law.
Abstract
In Italy, feminist legal theory has taken two opposing approaches to gender differences. One group of feminists considers sexual differences as an issue of equality and civil rights which affects other minorities as well; the other group considers being female (like maleness) as a gender in and of itself, which (unlike maleness) has been socially and historically oppressed. These contrasting views emerge in the different positions on rape. While the first group considers rape as a severe violent crime which must be prosecuted with the same seriousness as other violent crimes, the second group sees rape as a specifically feminine problem which should be prosecuted only if the victim desires it. The author argues for a synthesis between the two positions the creation of a gendered justice which is based on the offender rather than on the offense. In this justice, male or female offenders and victims would take full responsibility for their own actions in their own distinct legal contexts. 16 references