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Racial Minority Women and Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Violence

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Abstract

Racialized minority women’s experiences with Canadian specialized criminal justice responses to domestic violence have seldom been documented. Informed by an intersectionality framework, this qualitative study presents the struggles of 14 racial minority women from three Canadian cities and their experiences with the police and criminal court’s response to their partner’s acts of domestic violence. The results focus on how well specialized criminal justice responses address the needs of these women and protect them from further violence. Factors that facilitate or deter these women from approaching the criminal justice system for help are highlighted. The implications of these women’s narratives for criminal justice responses to domestic violence are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada on the Community University Research Alliance project to Leslie Tutty and Jane Ursel, Co-Principle Investigators.

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Correspondence to Dora M. Y. Tam.

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Tam, D.M.Y., Tutty, L.M., Zhuang, Z.H. et al. Racial Minority Women and Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Violence. J Fam Viol 31, 527–538 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-015-9794-7

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