Abstract
In 2008 Guatemala passed legislation criminalizing various forms of violence against women and mandating the creation of courts that would specialize in such violence. This article demonstrates that these reforms’ impacts were unevenly felt, with the most marginalized benefiting the least. It explains this gap by drawing on a historical intersectional analysis, and reveals the importance of including place alongside more commonly studied categories of difference. It also illuminates the sources of the gaps between policies and their impacts. It finds that many Guatemalan women remained marginalized from security and justice, despite attempts to protect them, for two reasons. First, the reforms isolated violence against women from other structural sources of inequality, thus undercutting their impacts for multiply marginalized women. Second, the reforms’ impacts were undermined by historically constituted patterns of state-society relations and the uneven nature of the Guatemalan state.
Highlights
Erin BeckIn 2008 Guatemala passed legislation criminalizing various forms of violence against women and mandating the creation of courts that would specialize in such violence
On April 10, 2008, the Guatemalan Congress passed the Law against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence against Women (Ley contra Femicidio y Otras Formas de Violencia contra la Mujer), which established violence against women (VAW) as a crime rooted in “unequal power relations between women and men, in social, economic, judicial, political, cultural and familial realms.” Aiming to overcome long-standing impunity, it criminalized various forms of VAW, established the gendered killing of women as a unique crime, and mandated the creation of specialized courts (Tribunales de Sentencia Penal de Delitos de Femicidio y Otras Formas de Violencia contra la Mujer) that would focus exclusively on VAW
What were the effects of national-level reforms for this young woman and others from communities like Santa Nimá? In addressing this question, this article answers the feminist call to center policy analysis on the needs of the most vulnerable women (Smith 2006) and draws on two approaches to state reform
Summary
In 2008 Guatemala passed legislation criminalizing various forms of violence against women and mandating the creation of courts that would specialize in such violence. Beck: The Uneven Impacts of Violence against Women Reform importance of historically constituted and interacting forms of marginalization based on multiple categories of difference It draws on the literature of anthropology of the state, which highlights the importance of studying the impact of reforms at the level of quotidian interactions between government officials (who may support or undercut reforms) and individual citizens. This analysis reveals the importance of including place alongside more commonly studied categories of difference such as gender, ethnicity, and class It illuminates the nature and sources of the gaps between policies and their impacts, demonstrating that many Guatemalan women remained marginalized from security and justice, despite attempts to protect them, for two reasons. I followed up with one victim, Virginia, twice interviewing her and her family in Santa Nimá, a municipality in western Guatemala. In order to protect the victim, I gave her and her municipality pseudonyms and removed citations directly related to Santa Nimá
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