Stereotypes and prejudices in the legal representation of violence against women. A socio-cultural analysis of the judgments in the Italian courts

Abstract

The paper presents and discusses data from the research «STEP – Stereotype and Prejudice. For a Cultural Change in Gender Representation in the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Media Reporting». The research is coordinated by Professor Flaminia Saccà, and financed by the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers - Department for Equal Opportunities. The analysis conducted on a sample of 283 judgments relating to crimes of violence against women (domestic violence; sexual violence; murder / femicide; human trafficking; stalking) shows how stereotypes and prejudices regarding gender relations, role expectations and women representation are still strongly rooted in our society and, at least partially, in our courtrooms. The paper identifies and describes the main critical elements found in the representation of violence against women proposed by the judgments’ language: the representation of the victim (and the key role of her testimony); the presence of three recurrent biases (family dispute bias, jealousy bias and raptus bias); the almost total lack of references to the main international regulatory sources (CEDAW and the Istanbul Convention).