The acquittal of both Lorena Bobbitt and her husband John Wayne Bobbitt for their violence and abuse against one another exemplifies the need to consider gender issues as well as the way that individuals decriminalize many acts of violence. It is important to recognize also that the moral panic about violence in the United States focuses on the random, unpredictable violence of young men rather than on the domestic assault and other violence described during the Bobbitt trials. The gendered context within which acts of violence occur is central to examining how violence works in everyday life to sustain and reinforce a social order that supports displays of power over other people, both male and female. It is crucial to use the lens of gender to understand the meaning of ordinary violence and explore how the definitions of criminal violence are distorted versions of normal violence. Any public policy to reduce violence must be acutely sensitive to the way gender articulates the meaning and experience of committing or experiencing violence. Crime prevention policies and programs must address both specific and general aspects of how women and men experience, avoid, and minimize violence within their everyday lives. Notes and 69 references