Crime and Punishment: Women, Domestic and Sexual Violence, and the Canadian Legal System Essay by Top Papers

the following paper will argue that women who found themselves the victims of domestic violence or the victims of sexual violence during the late-nineteenth century and the early-twentieth century had to accept that the scales were not in their favor: if they were a victim of domestic violence, their complaints were too often ignored; if they were the victims of sexual assault, aspersions could easily be cast upon their character and they - not the actual perpetrator - might find themselves on trial. In such a context, it is easy to see why there was enormous pressure for women to conform to particular stereotypes if they were to find any sympathy at all; that is to say, a woman who finally lashed out an abusive husband had to prove that she was a good woman, a good mother, and a paragon of virtue finally pushed too far. In the case of sexual assault, showing oneself to be a virtuous woman was a must - as was the fact that being married offered a greater measure of security than not being married. In the end, the Canadian legal system was a patriarchal one in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries - and that had grim repercussions for how women were treated.