Cherie Williams, a 35-year-old African-American woman in the Bronx, just wanted to protect herself from her abusive boyfriend. So she called the cops. But altho NY requires police to make an arrest when responding to domestic violence calls, the officers didnt leave their car. When Williams demanded their badge #s, the police handcuffed her, drove her to a deserted parking lot, & beat her, breaking her nose, spleen, & jaw. They then left her on the ground. “They told me if they saw me on the street, they would kill me,” Williams later testified. The year was 1999. It was a half-decade after the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which deployed more police & introduced more punitive sentencing in an attempt to reduce domestic violence. Many of the feminists whod lobbied for the passage of VAWA remained silent about Williams & countless other women whose 911 calls resulted in more violence. Often white, well-heeled feminists, their legislative accomplishment did little to stem violence against less affluent, more marginalized women like Williams. This carceral variant of feminism continues to be the predominant form. While its adherents would likely reject the descriptor, carceral feminism describes an approach that sees increased policing, prosecution, & imprisonment as the primary solution to violence against women. This stance does not acknowledge that police are often purveyors of violence & that prisons are always sites of violence. Carceral feminism ignores the ways in which race, class, gender identity, & immigration status leave certain women more vulnerable to violence & that greater criminalization often places these same women @ risk of state violence. (This approach to feminist law has bad effects in other areas as well, such as child support)
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 01:11:39 +0000
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