History and Memories of the Domestic Violence Movement

In this captivating book, activist and scholar Gill Hague recounts the inspiring story of the violence against women movement in the UK and beyond from 1960s onwards, examining the transformatory politics behind this movement through an important historical and international lens.

Is Domestic Violence Politicized Too Narrowly?

This Chapter argues that the domestic violence movement is narrowly politicized around the internalities of domestic violence in ways that unintentionally restrain law reform efforts to end family violence. While this internalities frame achieved critical successes in bringing domestic violence into the public frame and shaping critical interventions to it, it also collaterally immunized the state from accountability by paradoxically positioning the crisis of domestic violence and accountability for effective interventions squarely on victims and victim support networks. Expanding the politicization of domestic violence to also include the externalities of domestic violence is a critical – albeit uncomfortable – shift to move from intervening in domestic violence on behalf of victims to ending domestic violence.

Introduction

The book, THE POLITICIZATION OF SAFETY, will critically explore political dimensions of interventions in or failures to intervene in domestic violence. The Introduction identifies how domestic violence is commonly assumed to be a bipartisan, nonpolitical issue, yet racial and gender politics, the move toward criminalization, reproductive justice concerns, gun control debates, and other factors and political interests significantly shape responses to domestic violence. The development of the anti-domestic violence movement and has a complex history, and the way forward during the Trump Era will certainly be fraught as protections and services for survivors of gender-based violence are under siege.

The Coupling and Decoupling of Safety and Crime Control

In the past several years, the U.S. feminist anti-violence social movement’s reliance on criminalization has weakened under the weight of mounting criticism of what is now known as “carceral feminism.” This recent shift towards the consideration of explicitly anti-carceral practices and policies within the mainstream feminist anti-violence movement signals a significant break in what has been a steady progression toward a solid pro-criminalization stance since the 1970s. This Chapter provides a timeline outlining some key moments contributing to the pro-criminalization position of the anti-domestic violence movement as well as countervailing events and initiatives that have constructed an anti-carceral alternative. The timeline demonstrates that the anti-carceral turn that is now redefining the mainstream movement is the result of two decades of resistance and counter-hegemonic movement building led primarily by women, gender non-conforming, and trans people of color.