Gender-based Violence: A Conceptual Analysis

The concept of gender-based violence is probably among the most significant contributions that feminist thought has made to legal theory. The concept is adopted in several international and supranational agreements and declarations, and it is also employed in some national legislations. The spread of this concept undoubtedly speaks to its political and social success. But it also raises problems, both theoretical and political. From a theoretical point of view, the concept is not at all clear. Different definitions of it circulate in the literature and the law, and they are often indeterminate. From a political point of view, the feminist struggle to assert the concept of gender violence has cast women in the role of victims, which has reinforced social stereotypes of female weakness, while at the same time placing an outsized emphasis on the recognition of new gender-oriented criminal offences. These political problems have been extensively debated, and I will briefly comment on that debate, but I suggest that it would be helpful to set the stage for that discussion with a conceptual analysis, to which the bulk of this essay is devoted, attempting to clarify the concepts of violence and gender and how they are related.