What question did this study set out to answer?

The article examines how criminal law names gendered harm and the significance of these designations for social reality and power relations.

Naming Gendered Harm: Criminal Law and the Semiotics of Legal Categories

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

This article explores how criminal law constructs gendered harm through legal categories, indicating the implications for power dynamics.

The article examines how criminal law names gendered harm and the significance of these designations for social reality and power relations.
Analysis of legal categories like 'sexual assault' and 'strangulation' in case studies from New Zealand.
Examination of the impact of legal naming on the visibility and actionability of harms.
Discussion of feminist perspectives on the control of these legal categories and their effects.
Legal naming influences the perception of harm, determining what is recognized and actionable.
Power dynamics shift as state actors interpret and apply legal categories, often counter to feminist interests.
The article positions legal meaning-making as a dynamic and contested political process.

Zoë Prebble (2026) studied this question.

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark