Edna Erez

Intersections of Immigration and Domestic Violence Voices of Battered Immigrant Women

Feminist criminologists have helped to criminalize domestic violence in the United States and elsewhere. With this significant accomplishment, scholars also have critiqued the intended and unintended consequences of such reliance on the state for womens safety. One such critique reveals the intersectionality of social inequalities, social identities, and domestic violence. Here, the authors analyze the relationship between immigration and domestic violence based on interviews with 137 immigrant women in the United States from 35 countries. They find that immigration shapes how women understand domestic violence, their access to resources, and responses to domestic violence. This project documents observed dynamics of structural intersectionality for immigrant women as national origin and citizenship status are considered as another layer of identity politics and marginalization in relation to domestic violence.

Victim Participation in Sentencing: And the Debate Goes On …*:

The right of victims in adversarial legal systems to provide input into sentencing decisions is still controversial. The paper presents the various forms victim input takes and the arguments for and against its use in sentencing. It then surveys the relevant research that has addressed these arguments and examines the implementation of this right. The article concludes that victim input may have some beneficial results for victims and for the justice system, without any of the predicted adverse effects on them.

Access to Justice for Immigrants Who are Victimized: The Perspectives of Police and Prosecutors

The increased diversity of the U.S. population poses special challenges to the criminal justice system. High levels of immigration to the United States within the past decade require that law enforcement and court organizations understand the concerns of crime victims who are recent immigrants, and facilitate meaningful access to the justice system. Employing survey methodology, this research describes the barriers that immigrants encounter in accessing justice, as they emerged from the responses of police chiefs and prosecutors in the 50 largest cities of the United States. Criminal justice officials believe that failure to report crimes and to cooperate in their prosecution is a significant problem, especially for domestic violence offenses. The results suggest that many metropolitan areas have made some efforts to promote participation of immigrant victims in the criminal justice system. But far more needs to be done to ensure access to justice for this growing segment of society.

Communication in Sentencing: Exploring the Expressive Function of Victim Impact Statements

The role of the victim in the sentencing process continues to generate controversy among scholars and practitioners across many jurisdictions. In this article we address some of the persistent objections to allowing victim input into sentencing. By placing the debate on victim input within its historical context, we suggest that the movement to provide victims with a voice has been derailed, as the communicative model of victim input — originally envisioned by the reform movement as its justification — was replaced by a model that stresses the impact of VIS on sentencing. We argue that much of the lingering opposition to victim input rights has been animated by this ‘impact’ model, which we argue is theoretically misconceived, empirically unsupported and at odds with major sentencing aims. We reintroduce the communicative model, which reflects the original intent and purpose of the victim reform concerning input, elaborating on its advantages for victims and offenders. We then provide two examples from the field to illustrate the therapeutic benefits of the model for both victims and offenders. We conclude with a call to reassess current theory and practice regarding victim integration in sentencing and offer some policy recommendations regarding the optimal way to integrate the voice of the victim at sentencing.

Victim Harm, Impact Statements and Victim Satisfaction with Justice: An Australian Experience

In the debate surrounding victim input into sentencing, a major argument in favor of using victim impact statements (VIS) centered on the presumed effect of VIS on victim satisfaction with justice. Drawing upon procedural justice theory, this article examines the validity of the arguments concerning increased satisfaction with justice through a survey of felony crime victims in South Australia. The study sheds light on the factors that affect victim satisfaction with sentencing, and questions the presumed increased effect of VIS on satisfaction with justice. Further, it suggests a negative impact via unfulfilled expectations. The implications of the findings for VIS as an element of procedural justice are drawn and discussed.

The effect of victim impact statements on sentencing patterns and outcomes: The Australian experience

Abstract In the debate surrounding victim input into sentencing, the major argument against the use of victim impact statements (VISs) centered on the presumed harshening effect of VISs on sentencing outcomes. An argument in favor of victim impact statements has been that VISs may have a beneficial effect on court dispositions — an increase in restitution and compensation orders. This article examines the validity of these arguments by using three different data bases from South Australia: sentencing trends, court records, and in-depth interviews of members of the legal profession who are involved in the implementation of the VIS. The results do not support either of the arguments relative to sentencing and disposition outcomes. Possible reasons for the results are presented and their implications for the use of VISs are drawn and discussed.

Victim participation in proceedings and satisfaction with justice in the continental systems: The case of Poland

Victims in the European criminal justice systems have rights of input into and participation in proceedings. Some scholars have recommended that adversary legal systems, such as the U.S. legal system, learn from the Europeans how to listen to victims. This study examined the forms and extent of victim participation in proceedings (as private prosecutors, subsidiary prosecutors, or civil plaintiffs), and it assessed the effect of participation on victim satisfaction with justice in one European system (Poland). Based on a national sample of Polish victims, the study identified the correlates of victim participation and suggested that victim participation in proceedings is associated with victim satisfaction with the sentence and with the criminal justice system in general. The implications of the findings for adversary legal systems are discussed.

Gender, Palestinian Women, and Terrorism: Women's Liberation or Oppression?

Prior literature on womens participation in terrorism has paradoxically interpreted this involvement as a sign of womens newfound empowerment, and as an indication of ongoing gender oppression. The study examines the hypothesis that Palestinian womens involvement in terrorism indicates womens liberation. The data are derived from in-depth interviews with fourteen women who were detained or incarcerated in Israeli prisons for security offenses. The interviews shed light on the womens pathways to terrorism, the roles that they play in terrorist activity, and the aftermath of their security offenses within Palestinian society and culture. The study underlines the “no return” option and “no win” situation that Palestinian women who embark on terrorist activities encounter. The results demonstrate that although some women became involved in terrorism due to the sense of liberation that it provided, the women largely became disempowered in the aftermath of their offenses; rather than receiving praise for their activism as they had expected, they were shunned by others for their violation of gender expectations, and failure to fulfill traditional gender roles. The social and personal costs of involvement in terrorism for Palestinian women are analyzed, and policy implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.

Migration/immigration, domestic violence and the justice system

The article presents available research on the experiences of immigrant women who have encountered intimate violence, and examines the common and unique features of abuse suffered by immigrant women relative to nonimmigrant women. It first addresses the social meaning of an appropriate female behavior in immigrant communities. It highlights the dynamics of intimate abuse of immigrant women, special tactics batterers used to control them, and the coping mechanisms of immigrant women victims of abuse. The article then examines the help‐seeking behavior of immigrant women, with a special focus on the way in which immigration status and domestic violence interact within the health and justice systems. The article concludes with policy recommendations that address issues of immigration, domestic violence experienced by immigrant women, and the justice systems response to their plight.

Pathways of Arab/ Palestinian Women in Israel to Crime and Imprisonment: An Intersectional Approach:

Drawing on intersectionality theory, the article presents pathways of Arab/Palestinian in Israel to crime and imprisonment.The data base comprises of in-depth interviews of three groups: Arab/Palestinian women incarcerated in Israeli prisons for conventional offenses, law enforcement and corrections personnel, and Arab/Palestinian community leaders. Court and prison records were used to validate the interviews of the female offenders (N=10).The study identifies three pathways that lead Arab/Palestinian women to crime and imprisonment. They include: abusive homes and women’s attempts to resist gender oppression, association with criminal men or forbidden potential mates, and managing family-honor expectations. The interviewed Arab/Palestinian women offenders also emphasized how distinct and morally superior they are compared to their sisters who perpetrate security offenses or acts of terrorism. The implications of the study for theory and policy are drawn and discussed.