Eve Was Framed: Women and British Justice

Product Information

I'd be interested to see if she's dropped that term in her recent follow up Eve Was Shamed: How British Justice is Failing Women. As a profession and an academic subject, Law can still seem dominated by men and this book is an important reminder of how far we still have to go. The book tackles topical issues such as sexual assault, prostitution, domestic violence and abuse with sensitivity and offers compelling arguments about how the law could be reformed, especially to safeguard the children of female convicts and the women who have faced a lack of understanding from a male dominated system. They are at least reading copies, complete and in reasonable condition, but usually secondhand; frequently they are superior examples. Kennedy is particularly good at focusing not just on how the law treats women but how it treats black women, poor women, women who suffer mental health problems and other groups which have been treated poorly by our legal system in the past (and the present).

Helena Kennedy argues that women should be present in evert level of law -- this is because jurists are human beings, and, as such, are informed and influenced by their backgrounds, community and experiences. New Paperbacks NEW PAPERBACKS [jsb_filter_by_tags count="15" show_more="10" sort_by="total_products"/] A selection of recent paperbacks. If a woman is loud, or very confident, this will have an impact on the way a judge and jury will view her.But the inequities she uncovers could apply equally to any disadvantaged group – to those whose cases are subtly affected by race, class poverty or politics, or who are burdened, even before they appear in court, by misleading stereotypes. This is unlikely to improve while the mechanisms of amending existing and introducing new laws is so dominated by affluent, white, cishet, non-disabled men (i. The justice system was created for men by men with no allowances for different life experiences/cultures, and that needs to change, and Kennedy outlines her suggestions. Eve Was Framed is an eye-opening analysis of the disadvantages that women face in the criminal justice system.

i enjoyed the discussion about the "good wife" and how it can be both a boon (when women are granted clemency in court for adhering to gender stereotypes) and a bane (Myra Hindley). By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. In the midst of this, the court does not take into account other aspects such as depriving children of a mother and the condition of the woman in jail. Kennedy details several well-known cases and gives her interpretation of how the courts have failed to adequately take the defendant’s situation into account.

The simple but powerful line articulated throughout this book is that the law cannot treat people equally that are not equal.

It’s a similar story in the adult courts, where there has been a “shocking escalation in the numbers of women being sent to prison” despite the already low proportion of women committing serious offences falling over the same period.Perennials PERENNIALS constant friends A selection of novels, memoirs and more by some of our favourite authors. It makes you ask “why” the law works the way it does and how it could treat a certain issue more effectively. These can be exploited by one side or the other: women willing and able to present themselves as virtuous and devoted wives and mothers will be smiled on by the court (especially if white). In this book, Kennedy illustrates the difficulty women encounter when trying to navigate the British antiquated court systems.

Helena Kennedy highlights the ways in which bias plays a role in courts through her own experiences as a barrister, as well as drawing upon case law. Viscount Bledisloe chose an unfortunate but telling example from which to draw the principle: 'If I am accused of stealing your property, it is a defence if I show an honest belief that I had a claim of right to that property. Maybe the better points in the book were lost slightly by overwhelming amounts of unnecessary and often identical case studies, and I would have preferred a more direct and in-depth analysis of the law at practice itself. Such brief basics will be helpful to a first-year law student since it helps you to approach law in a more rounded way. Though at times repetitive, meandering and indulgent to the general publics morbid fascination with true crime details, ‘Eve was framed’ makes good observations on the failures of our courts in establishing true equal sentencing, in particular making insightful points on the treatment of minority women and how the intersection of various circumstances join with that of existing as a woman to create large legal disadvantages in a system created by men for men.Her 1992 book Eve Was Framed led to a number of key reforms for women and was followed in 2004 by Just Law. Happy to see that many of Kennedy's suggestions for reform have been taken up, albeit a decade or 2 late. Using her own experience and expertise, Kennedy reflects on how women often fail to find justice or fair treatment when it comes to the criminal law in the UK. The book opens with the mysterious description of the Inns of Court, and of the many obstacles encountered by women who aspire with be barristers. This book is a relatively quick and easy read, so it makes a nice break from the normal hefty law textbooks that the degree entails.