How Women’s Police Stations Empower Women, Widen Access to Justice and Prevent Gender Violence

Kerry Carrington; Natacha Guala; María Victoria Puyol; Máximo Sozzo

doi:10.5204/ijcjsd.v9i1.1494

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How Women’s Police Stations Empower Women, Widen Access to Justice and Prevent Gender Violence

Journal article

Open access

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How Women’s Police Stations Empower Women, Widen Access to Justice and Prevent Gender Violence

Kerry Carrington, Natacha Guala, María Victoria Puyol and Máximo Sozzo

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, Vol.9(1), pp.42-67

2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcjsd.v9i1.1494

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Abstract

gender-based violence

women's police stations

violence prevention

southern criminology

women in policing

Women’s police stations are a distinctive innovation that emerged in postcolonial nations of the global south in the second half of the twentieth century to address violence against women. This article presents the results of a world-first study of the unique way that these stations, called Comisaría de la Mujer, prevent gender-based violence in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. One in five police stations in this Province was established with a mandate of preventing gender violence. Little is currently known about how this distinctive multidisciplinary model of policing (which includes social workers, lawyers, psychologists and police) widens access to justice to prevent gender violence. This article compares the model’s virtues and limitations to traditional policing models. We conclude that specialised women’s police stations in the postcolonial societies of the global south increase access to justice, empower women to liberate themselves from the subjection of domestic violence and prevent gender violence by challenging patriarchal norms that sustain it. As a by-product, these women’s police stations also offer women in the global south a career in law enforcement—one that is based on a gender perspective. The study is framed by southern criminology, which reverses the notion that ideas, policies and theories can only travel from the anglophone world of the global north to the global south.

Details

Title: How Women’s Police Stations Empower Women, Widen Access to Justice and Prevent Gender Violence
Authors: Kerry Carrington (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Natacha Guala (Author) - Universidad Nacional del Litoral
María Victoria Puyol (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Máximo Sozzo (Author) - Universidad Nacional del Litoral
Publication details: International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, Vol.9(1), pp.42-67
Publisher: Queensland University of Technology, Crime and Justice Research Centre
Date published: 2020
DOI: 10.5204/ijcjsd.v9i1.1494
ISSN: 2202-8005; 2202-7998
Copyright note: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. As an open access journal, articles are free to use with proper attribution.
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99651493402621
Output Type: Journal article