Loney-Howes, Rachel, Longbottom, Marlene, and Fileborn, Bianca (2024) Gender-Based Violence and Carceral Feminism in Australia: Towards Decarceral Approaches. Feminist Legal Studies, 32. pp. 163-185.

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Abstract

This article explores the limitations of criminal legal responses to gender-based violence in Australia, specifically sexual assault law reforms and the criminalisation of coercive control. We demonstrate that carceral horizons deployed to address gender-based violence cause further harm to survivors and overshadow diverse perceptions and practices of justice. We suggest that such an approach is inappropriate and dangerous in the Australian context, given the historical and enduring harms of colonisation and the extent to which the actors within and the structure of the criminal legal system perpetrate violence towards Indigenous survivors of gender-based violence. Drawing on insights from research on survivors’ justice needs, survivors’ experiences in the criminal legal system, and abolitionist, transformative, and Indigenous scholarship, we discuss the potential for alternative ways of conceptualising justice responses in the Australian context that move beyond and avoid further perpetuating the harms arising from criminal legal responses to gender-based violence.

Item ID:	82599
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1572-8455
Copyright Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Date Deposited:	25 Mar 2025 02:10
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4402 Criminology > 440209 Gender and crime @ 40% 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4402 Criminology > 440202 Correctional theory, offender treatment and rehabilitation @ 20% 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4505 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, society and community > 450508 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander criminology @ 40%
SEO Codes:	23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2304 Justice and the law > 230405 Law reform @ 100%
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