THE RESEARCH PROJECT
The Discourse Of Marital Rape
Kritika Jain LL.B, L.L.M-
FACULTY OF LAW Delhi University
0.1 INTRODUCTION
Marital rape can be described as a serious violation of a woman’s bodily integrity and United Nations convention in the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women has included marital rape in the definition of gender based violence. India is one of the signatory to it and still we are, miles away from even acknowledging it let alone bringing separate legislation
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With the status quo being maintained on the issue all promises of safeguarding women’s interest seems hollow. There is a need is a need to change the traditional view that perceives the act of violence against women as crime against honor and morality instead of against her self-determination.
0.4 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Marital rape was rarely mentioned in social science literature until recently. Even feminist
Analysis of rape has given little attention to marital rape. The first article to appear in a scholarly journal on the subject of marital rape was Richard Gilles’s" Power, Sex and
Violence: The Case of Marital Rape, “published in 1977 (Russell,1990).In this article, Gelles
Raised the issue and highlighted the need of research on it. He further discussed the
The general perception of society regarding wife, sex and family and discussed
The areas to be focused .Later several researches come out on the issue in the west. The
Landmark is Russell’s(1990)studies on “Rape in marriage”. It is the foremost study
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0.5. Research question
1. To examine whether the legal regime is saving the evil of marital rape in directly?
2. Analyze the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and to what extend it is sufficient in curbing marital rape?
3. Evaluate the conflicting interface of marital rape vis-s-vis protection of children from sexual offences Act 2012 and Indian penal code?
4. The relation between the issue of marital rape and divorce?
5. Why marital rape is still not recognized as a crime in many countries?
0.6. Methodology
Doctoral approach will be employed in doing the research as case laws, doctrines; concepts will be analyzed in the paper. International conventions, international tribunals, resolutions and recommendations of international organizations will prove helpful in doing primary research work. Apart from these principles, concepts, peremptory norms, customary law will also be treated as primary as well as secondary sources of the research work.
0.6
Section 1: Sequence the key events of the “Its time” campaign and the Whitlam Labor Government between 1971 and 1975, and explain why the election win in 1972 was significant. (Max 300)! http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/whitlam/elections.aspx! ! 1. The Coalition fell further behind Labor in the polls, and Gorton resigned in 1971!
She further presents the cases as the source of empowerment for the young women to stand their grounds and marry against the wish of their parents (Sloan, 62). Besides, she explains that most girls presented “maltreatment at home” as their main reason for eloping with their prospective husbands, further challenging the authority of their parents. Sloan (122) narrates with evidence how the youth “alluded to a set of mutual obligations” within the members of a family, their suitors and the family of the partners so as to create rationale for their actions. Through the rapto cases, the youth slowly gained insight in the legal aspects and soon recognized “their status as individuals with rights and guarantees and could wield these concepts effectively in their dispositions and arguments before the judge” (Sloan154). Their understanding of their individual rights fueled them to stage allegations against the parents who either failed or were unable to meet the “end of the bargain”
A second argument regarding Card’s assertion that rape is a terrorist institution takes into consideration that no one is benefiting from this “institution,” if it is to be deemed as one. Another portion of Card’s definition of what constitutes as an institution is that the society surrounding it is “supporting and benefiting from such institutions” (101). However, if this explanation is true, then it is quite difficult, if not impossible, to decipher what segment of society can be said to benefit from rape. When viewed from a third party perspective, it appears that no one is profiting from this act. In addition, surely men do not want to be
“Only until 1974 has there been a consistent and planned systematic approach to partner violence” (James, 2008, p. 258). In the same year the National Organization for Women was founded, setting other organizations in place that re still around today, to help domestic violence. In 1994 The Violence Against Women Act was passed, this provided services and community support for women. The Violence Against Women act has been revised in 2000 and again in 2005. There were no shelters for women to go to in 1975, since then over 2000 shelters have been founded in 2002.
The cases get more hype as media reports cover them and present them as “cases of the century”. Thus it is the collective society responsibility to secure and safeguard women
*Rape used to be defined as a women being forced into sexual relations against her will. But Rape Reform Movements have changed the defintion so that it includes and protects former unsuspected victims of rape such as males, spouses, and cohabitants. The Sexual
According to Solomon (2012), dating as far back as the times of Hammurabi’s Code, rape victims were compared to adulterers and were perceived as “damaged goods” because it spoiled a women’s marriageability potential (Solomon, 2012). During the colonial period in America, a woman could not report that she was raped to a local civil officer, instead she needed her husband, father, or employer to make the claim. In other words, women were seen as second class citizens who were denied the right to advocate for themselves without the support of a man. Also, it was believed that women “were prone to brining such charges [of rape] to disguise illicit consensual sex” (Solomon, 2012, p.
Feminist theory, argues that the basic cause of sexual assault revolves around the nature of gender inequality; that is, gender inequality for all genders, not just males and females. In the focus of feminist theory we analyze patriarchal norms, gender discrimination as well as sexual objectification. The focus of gender as the key cause, is however, flawed. While this theory does explain a large proportion of sexual assaults and cover both distal and proximal variables, it doesn’t fully help explain the largely under researched topics of same-sex assaults and the factor of vulnerability and power. Structural functionalist theory is also a peculiar choice.
To better understand the cause of intimate violence will help to come up will help come up with a better solution on solving this problem. There are various theories that have come up to explain the main causes of domestic violence, some include; learned helplessness theory, Intergenerational Transmission Theory, Social–Psychological Model and the feminist theory. All of these theories have tried to illustrate the causes of domestic violence. In this paper, I will target my writing on the feminist theory where it emphasizes power and gender inequalities in relationships. The theory focuses on how societal messages that makes it alright for a male to use aggression and violence, and the gender roles that dictate how women and men should act in their relationships
The mass rapes of hundreds of women during the conflict in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia drew the attention of the world community at large. The feminist human rights approach has been successful in persuading the international tribunals to identify sexual violence against women as a means of genocide and also a crime against humanity. This is evident from the cases decided by these tribunals. Monica Adhiambo Onyango and Karen Hampanda (2011) discuss that the current human rights discourse being used to examining wartime sexual violence is rather problematic as it promotes an exclusive male-perpetrator and female-victim paradigm. The fact remains that there is very little research documenting the long-term outcomes of individuals and communities that have experienced male sexual violence during armed conflicts.
“Although concerning sexual practices between adults and children have existed throughout history and across cultures, whether such behavior was conceived of and defined as ‘abuse’ has been dependent on the societal values of the particular period” (Denov, 2004). In today’s society, sex offending has become an increasingly, concerning phenomenon that individuals must become more aware of. Although generally regarded as a male phenomenon, over time, female perpetrators have become equally important as male perpetrators. Due to the lack of public awareness, female sexual predators go unreported. As a result, society must become more aware of female sexual perpetrators, as many incidents of females assaulting both young men and women have gone unreported for some time.
To initiate, the implementation of gender equality laws will help conclude unequal treatment towards women and create opportunities for women to refuse unsafe work and treatments. Also, without the right to make individual choices for body, women 's prosperity, well-being, and potential in society are restricted and gender inequality is therefore perpetuated. According to the academic article, Sexual Health’s Women’s Rights, “120 million girls worldwide have experienced forced intercourse” (Ngcuka) activities against their own individual soul. Many women are suffering from forced physical and sexual violence because of the limited laws and regulations that allow women to refuse unsafe treatments and practices. According to reports, the “ 32
(Cohen, 58) It does not make sense for a woman to marry a man that has significantly hurt her. In today’s world, with the incident of being raped, there are many physical and psychological harm done to the individual, “Rape may therefore injure body and reputation, but most crucially it attacks the self by violating private boundaries” (Cohen,
In fact, 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not yet considered as a crime. One out of four women experienced violence during pregnancy, over 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, married before the age of 18 as conformed by United Nation as a result on their survey. A woman can do violence to other woman but in most cases, violence is done by men to women. “Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture.