Gender, Violence and Law

Considering law-gender and law-violence relationships, Lucinda Joy Peach (2004) argues that law is male gendered in a way in which it is forged and written by men (Peach, 2004 p. 62) and also that it does not just ‘control violence outside but that law itself is a source of violence’ (Sarat and Kearns in Peach, 2004 p. 65). Taking a step forward the idea of law as male-biased and itself violent, the author also claims that law provides a perception that violence is male (Peach, 2004 p. 67); so, the direct consequence is that law treats men and women in a different way and th at men are seen as active actors of violence while women are considered as mere passive and fragile victims and not as possible perpetrators of violence.