Policing 'Domestic' Violence : Women, the Law and the State

Violence in the home, particularly assault by a man on his wife or girlfriend, is an everyday phenomenon. What should the police and law courts do about it? In Policing ‘Domestic’ Violence, first published in 1989, reissued here with a new preface, Susan Edwards draws upon her extensive research into their actual responses, both before and after recent initiatives towards reform at the time, to address the practical and theoretical issues for criminology and feminism.

Examining police and court practice, the author exposes the ways in which the patriarchal ideology enshrined in the law, and the masculine ethos of the police and legal profession, ensure that women receive less justice and less protection. She documents in detail the processes by which crimes against women are trivialized.

The book combines a review of international research with the author’s own five-year exploration of policing in the UK through interviews with officers, observation and a review of record-keeping practice. It covers the introduction of new policing policies and offers a preliminary assessment of their success together with practical proposals for the future.

At a theoretical level, this title addresses the key problems of criminality and punishment. Is it possible to reconcile the feminist critique of the marginalization of so-called domestic violence with the radical critique of the punitive system as oppressive and counterproductive? Does the protection of women justify infringement of family privacy?

The book should be read in its historical context by students of criminology, law, women’s studies and sociology, as well as those concerned with policies and practical measures for dealing with violence in the home.