Citation

Paterson S. Soc. Polit. 2010; 17(2): 159-184.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Swedish Council for Social Research, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/sp/jxq001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Integrating insights from a problem representation approach and a feminist bargaining framework, I explore the "lived effects" of Canada's anti-wife abuse policy frameworks. The policy frameworks are premised on protection, which requires removal from danger. In effect, anti-violence policy problematizes the behavior of women, constructing women's resistance to abuse as only exit, falsely classifying the women who leave as "resistors" and those who stay as either "helpless victims" or "willing participants". Where the "helpless victims" are constructed as policy problems, the other women are defined away from the policy frameworks, offered no protection from the state. The analysis reveals that anti-violence policy, far from protecting women, actually increases their vulnerability to abuse.

Language: en