TY - JOUR
T1 - Predators
T2 - The social construction of “Stranger-Danger” in Washington state as a form of patriarchal ideology
AU - Websdale, Neil S.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1996/6/17
Y1 - 1996/6/17
N2 - The article critically examines Washington State's Predator Law (1990). The most controversial part of the law provides for the indefinite civil commitment of “sexually violent predators.” Under the legislation, husbands who victimize their wives and children cannot be defined as predators, I argue that the social construction of predators as sick strangers is an ideological construct. This non-conspiratorial construct diverts attention from the fact that male intrafamilial violence is by far the greatest threat to the safety of women and children. These diversionary tendencies in the predator discourse constitute a hitherto scarcely publicized backlash against feminist arguments about the need for criminal laws that work in the interests of all women and children.
AB - The article critically examines Washington State's Predator Law (1990). The most controversial part of the law provides for the indefinite civil commitment of “sexually violent predators.” Under the legislation, husbands who victimize their wives and children cannot be defined as predators, I argue that the social construction of predators as sick strangers is an ideological construct. This non-conspiratorial construct diverts attention from the fact that male intrafamilial violence is by far the greatest threat to the safety of women and children. These diversionary tendencies in the predator discourse constitute a hitherto scarcely publicized backlash against feminist arguments about the need for criminal laws that work in the interests of all women and children.
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U2 - 10.1300/J012v07n02_04
DO - 10.1300/J012v07n02_04
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84937280262
SN - 0897-4454
VL - 7
SP - 43
EP - 68
JO - Women and Criminal Justice
JF - Women and Criminal Justice
IS - 2
ER -