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评估女权主义者对强奸的观点

女权主义者认为,刑法已被证明在适用家庭和外界暴力平等关系时是不恰当的。他们的批评起源于在法律中私人和公共暴力的区别，就像巴奈特强调的传统上认为对待暴力比较开明的态度是把它当作是私人的家庭问题，而这“不是法律的业务”[1],瓦克在他的《法律哲学概论》(2006)简短的引言中说道,“家庭暴力的罪行通常发生在家里,法律往往是不愿去干涉的”[2]因此表明了妻子和她暴力的丈夫很少受到刑法的管束。

女权主义者主要批评了法律中对男性罪犯的暴力行为低起点的起诉和女性受害者的治疗之间的差距。福西特协会委员会[3]研究发现,即使一个家庭暴力的受害者准备采取行动并且起诉,通常受害者后来会拒绝为施暴的丈夫提供证据 [4]。巴纳特评论“在家庭暴力案件中的刑事诉讼的多数是无效的,因为被告通常会给予非监禁或短期监禁的控告[5],而作为一种报复，只可能恢复原样以及造成更多的暴力”[6]。

Assessing The Feminist Views Of Rape Law Essay

Feminists have argued that criminal law has proven inadequate in its application of equality in relation to violence within the home and outside of it. Their criticism stems from the private and public distinction of violence within law as Barnett highlights the liberal approach to violence is traditionally viewed as a domestic, private family matter that is “not the business of the law” [1] ; Wacks illustrates in his Short Introduction to philosophy of Law (2006) that “crimes of domestic violence normally occur within the home into which the law is often reluctant to intrude” [2] thus claiming that wives and partners of violent males have very little protection from criminal law.

The main criticism of the law for feminists lies in the disparity between low levels of prosecution of male perpetrators of violence and the treatment of women who are victims. As the findings of the Fawcett Society Commission [3] , concluded that even where a victim of domestic violence is prepared to take action and co-operate in a prosecution, often the victim later refuses to provide evidence against the violent partner [4] . Barnett comments “to pursue criminal proceedings is ineffective as the majority of defendants in domestic violence cases are given non-custodial sentances or very short sentances [5] , only to return to and inflict more violence as a form of revenge” [6] .

For feminists the main criticisms regarding criminal law are those in relation to rape and domestic violence as they inter link with one another. Celia Wells in her article Impact of Feminist Thinking on Criminal Law comments that “a vignette of current concerns suggests that much has changed in the last few decades in relation to domestic violence and rape” [7] . The Home Office have set up a ministerial group on domestic violence [8] . Harriet Harman [9] emphasises the importance the government attaches to effectively tackling the crime of rape [10] .

Feminist Views of rape

The law on rape is one of the most contentious issues, since feminists argue that gender-bias is both open and hidden, within this area of criminal law. Much of the criticism made by feminists focuses around the difficulties in proving the non-consent element of rape, cross examination, rape myths, the use of sexual history evidence in court and the ruling of DPP v Morgan [11] .

One of the most influential ideas in the feminist discussion of rape is that sex and rape are more alike than different. MacKinnon comments that “the line between rape and intercourse commonly centres on some measure of the woman’s will…” [12] .

Sara Hinchliffe [13] also confirmed the radical argument that rape and sex are similar; in her article published in the independent she comments that “ this notion has become increasingly popular among feminists and also appears to be increasingly in favour with official political a本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。