عنوان

Access to justice :

Number

TLets636490

Title Proper

Access to justice :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

McPherson, Rachel Mary

Title Proper by Another Author

women who kill, self-defence and pre-trialdecision making

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Glasgow Caledonian University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2015

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Glasgow Caledonian University

Text preceding or following the note

2015

Text of Note

This thesis explores the pre-trial barriers to justice women potentially face upon killing theirabusers. Legally, socially and politically, increased attention has been paid to domestic aousein the UK in recent years, but less attention has been paid to women who kill their maleabusers. Elsewhere, commentators have discussed women's use of self-defence in thiscontext, pointing to pre-trial decision making as key in terms of potentially accessing thisdefence. Despite this, neither self-defence nor pre-trial procedures have been the focus of anywork which has examined the issue of women who kill their abusers in the UK. This thesis aimsto illuminate this gap in knowledge, with a focus specifically on Scotland because of its uniquelegal system and requirements of self-defence in particular.This research draws on thirty qualitative interviews with criminal lawyers with experienceadvising women who have killed their abusive partners. It has specifically examined thedifficulty women encounter in having their actions deemed justifiable through a successfulapplication of self-defence. This has been done from the perspective of lawyers' willingness togo to trial on this basis (rather than its success at trial level, due to the high number of cases ofthis nature which are resolved by a guilty plea being tendered to a reduced charge of culpablehomicide).What will be argued is that barriers to justice for women who kill their abusers are evident atboth structural and individual levels. At a structural level, the criminal justice system itselfincentivises trial avoidance, whilst criminal law understandings of self-defence are based onmale conceptions of (public) violence. At the level of individuals; decision making for manylawyers is driven by an understanding of domestic abuse which is based on stereotypes and aninability to conceptualise women's actions in this context as legitimate - meaning thatultimately the social and legal context of the offence may remain hidden. The result is thatlegal practice serves to narrowly conceptualise female perpetrated homicides. This has verysignificant implications for women's engagement with pre~trial criminal justice processes, theiraccess to self-defence and more widely, for how domestic abuse is understood by andtranslated to wider society.

McPherson, Rachel Mary

Glasgow Caledonian University

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y