Citation

Dolan M. Rev. Mex. Sociol. 1995; (1): 151-166.

Vernacular Title

Estrategias juridicas contra la violencia en los hogares de las comunidades

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12295310

Abstract

Although domestic violence against women has a long history in Nicaragua, it did not receive national public attention until a 1985 study that was conducted by the Legal Office for Women (OLM) of the Sandinista Women¿s organization. AMNLAE showed that 51% of the cases in which women sought legal assistance, related to domestic violence. The Nicaraguan law does not specifically consider domestic violence, and no previous studies allow comparison with current statistics. This work describes two juridical strategies to resist violence against women: 1) an effort, largely initiated by lawyers and social scientists participating in the OLM, to reform the formal juridical system through new legislation making domestic violence a crime; 2) a strategy initiated by activists in poor urban barrios in the municipal districts north of Managua, who developed locally based informal mechanisms including a court of women, assignment of lawyers to work with battered women in the local police station, and organization of community networks of resistance by the lawyers. The development of the process during the Sandinista period of the 1980s and transformation under the Violeta Chamorros regime after 1990 are analyzed. The complex interaction of the AMNLAE with the Sandinista regime and the redefinition of the limits among private and public domains of urban neighborhoods are examined.

Language: es