Suchergebnisse

A good place to commit murder -- The war against women -- The growth of the women's movement and challenges to the patriarchal state -- Visible violence, invisible assassins: "necrographic maps" and terror in Guatemalan murder reports -- "Easy targets," "cannon fodder," and the "wrong path" -- "Violence lies in wait for women at home": framing VAW as domestic violence -- "For no apparent reason," "in a drunken state," "blinded by jealousy," "after an argument," and other stories of "love gone wrong" that frame domestic violence reports -- From genocide to feminicide: blaming patriarchy, impunity, and the state for VAW

AbstractIn this essay, I use a case of testifying as an expert witness to argue that the anthropological focus on multicausality, context, and the social/cultural origins of persecution is useful and necessary in asylum cases. The government attorney argued that the persecutor's violence was "personal," related only to his alcoholism, not the victim's identity as his wife. I argued that regardless of his personal history, the violence and the "excuses and justifications" that he used were patterned and based in cultural ideologies about gender. In a criminal case this might provide a "cultural defense" to avoid culpability. However, in asylum cases the social/cultural origins of violence help meet the legal criteria for asylum.

A review essay covering books by 1) Hector Carrillo, The Night is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS (2002), 2) Rafael de la Dehesa, Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico and Brazil: Sexual Rights Movements in Emerging Democracies (2010) and 3) Matthew Gutmann, Fixing Men: Sex, Birth Control, and AIDS in Mexico (2007).

The coming of peace in Central America after several decades of civil war and military dictatorships has not resulted in an end to violence. Murder rates have risen to such a degree that these countries are among the most violent in the world. One form of violence that has received a great deal of attention is the murder of women, but many argue that this is only one of many forms of violence that women face on a daily basis. The women's organizations that have emerged in Guatemala since the end of the civil war have focused on demanding greater political and economic rights for women and laws that recognize violence against women as a crime and improve the mechanisms for investigating and prosecuting it. Two recent laws redefine sex crimes in such a way as to suggest that they should be seen as heinous acts regardless of the woman's sexual history, character, or age. Though these discursive changes are a triumph, problems with the legal system and the persistence of sexist ideologies have so far limited the effectiveness of these new laws. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]

The coming of peace in Central America after several decades of civil war and military dictatorships has not resulted in an end to violence. Murder rates have risen to such a degree that these countries are among the most violent in the world. One form of violence that has received a great deal of attention is the murder of women, but many argue that this is only one of many forms of violence that women face on a daily basis. The women's organizations that have emerged in Guatemala since the end of the civil war have focused on demanding greater political and economic rights for women and laws that recognize violence against women as a crime and improve the mechanisms for investigating and prosecuting it. Two recent laws redefine sex crimes in such a way as to suggest that they should be seen as heinous acts regardless of the woman's sexual history, character, or age. Though these discursive changes are a triumph, problems with the legal system and the persistence of sexist ideologies have so far limited the effectiveness of these new laws.La llegada de la paz a Centroamérica tras varias décadas de guerra civil y dictaduras militares no ha puesto fin a la violencia. El índice de asesinatos ha aumentado a tal grado que estos países se encuentran entre los más violentos del mundo. Una forma de violencia que ha recibido mucha atención es el femicidio, pero muchos argumentan que esta es sólo una entre muchas formas de violencia que las mujeres enfrentan a diario. Las organizaciones de mujeres que han surgido en Guatemala desde el fin de la guerra civil se han centrado en demandar mayores derechos políticos y económicos para las mujeres y leyes que reconozcan como delito la violencia contra la mujer, mejorando los mecanismos de investigación y justicia. Dos leyes recientes redefinen los delitos sexuales de tal forma que sugieren que pueden considerarse actos atroces sin importar la edad, carácter o historia sexual de la mujer. Aunque estos cambios discursivos representan un triunfo, los problemas con el sistema legal y la persistencia de ideologías machistas han limitado, hasta ahora, la eficacia de estas nuevas leyes.