Femicide, Institutional Responsibility, and State Impunity in the US

• In Event: Concepts of Responsibility in American Politics: Protection, Policy, and Law

Abstract

This paper explores femicide, i.e., gender-related murder of women, in the US as an intersectional and multidimensional policy issue rather than simply a criminal justice problem. In the contemporary US, over 2,000 women are killed annually, mostly by an intimate partner or an acquaintance. Women of color are disproportionately represented among femicide victims. Impunity—e.g., the lack of proper investigation and prosecution of gender-based violence (GBV)—is one of the major issues that lead to femicide (Threadcraft 2017). Attempts to address GBV and impunity in the US have historically focused on criminal justice oriented legal reforms (e.g., mandatory arrest policies and harsher punishments). The history of the battered women’s movement has revealed, however, that these responses reinforce carceral policies and legitimate state violence against people of color (Richie 2012). Furthermore, they divert attention from the role of social and economic policies and the importance of centering victims’ needs in addressing GBV. It is important to break this pattern for the budding anti-femicide advocacy in the US to succeed. To this end, this paper asks: How can impunity be addressed without reinforcing a carceral system? In answering this question, I employ content and critical discourse analyses of relevant congressional records and complement this data with in-depth interviews with members of grassroots organizations. Drawing from Black feminist scholarship and femicide literature on/from Latin America, I argue that institutional, rather than individual, responsibility should be at the center of the femicide debate. To do so, the American state should be brought (back) into the discussion of femicide, not simply in its capacity to punish but in its responsibility to prevent femicide. The discussion of impunity should include state impunity for enabling femicide (e.g., the lack of efficient firearm regulations and help-seeking options, and racist law enforcement practices). As such, this paper contributes to the efforts to overcome the impunity/carcerality dichotomy and to devise policy solutions that serve intersectional needs. It also situates the US in the global discussions on femicide.

Author

• Sumru Atuk, Ithaca College