Unwilling Mothers, Unwanted Babies

Unwilling Mothers, Unwanted Babies PDF Author: Kirsten Johnson Kramar
Publisher: Law and Society
ISBN: 9780774811774
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This book traces twentieth-century Canadian criminal justice responses to women who kill their newly born babies. Initially, juries were reluctant to convict these women of murder since it carried the death penalty. The current "infanticide" law was adopted in 1948 to impose uniformity on legal practice and to ensure a homicide conviction. Even then, prosecutors faced considerable difficulties, but now, amidst media pressure, and with public attitudes possibly hardening, there are calls for the repeal of the infanticide law and the adoption of a draconian framework to deal with these cases. Kirsten Kramar provides an interdisciplinary feminist approach to the study of infanticide law, examining and linking historical, sociological, and legal scholarship. She examines in detail the legislative history and infanticide case law, as well as the range of relevant medical discourses from the past 100 years. By doing this, she provides a more nuanced approach to the debates around the broader issues of the medicalization of women’s deviance – one that reveals some of the political dangers inherent in hasty critiques of infanticide law, and shows the value of careful interdisciplinary analysis for studies in the history of law and socio-legal relations. Drawing on a wide range of original data sources (provincial and federal indictment case files, coroner’s records, reported legal cases, Hansard Parliamentary Debates, official crime statistics, media reports, and expert medical texts), Kramar presents a detailed picture of the developments, revealing the often ironic consequences of attempts to rationalize this area of law. An established feminist critique of "infanticide" as an inappropriately medical concept is shown to have been largely unhelpful, misconstruing the phenomenon’s history and significance, and lending support to calls for a "get tough" approach Unwilling Mothers, Unwanted Babies makes an important contribution to the international literature on maternal neonaticide as well as the medicalization of deviance, and will be of interest to those working in law, sociology, criminology, women’s studies, and gender history.

Unwilling Mothers, Unwanted Babies

Unwilling Mothers, Unwanted Babies PDF Author: Kirsten Johnson Kramar
Publisher: Law and Society
ISBN: 9780774811774
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book traces twentieth-century Canadian criminal justice responses to women who kill their newly born babies. Initially, juries were reluctant to convict these women of murder since it carried the death penalty. The current "infanticide" law was adopted in 1948 to impose uniformity on legal practice and to ensure a homicide conviction. Even then, prosecutors faced considerable difficulties, but now, amidst media pressure, and with public attitudes possibly hardening, there are calls for the repeal of the infanticide law and the adoption of a draconian framework to deal with these cases. Kirsten Kramar provides an interdisciplinary feminist approach to the study of infanticide law, examining and linking historical, sociological, and legal scholarship. She examines in detail the legislative history and infanticide case law, as well as the range of relevant medical discourses from the past 100 years. By doing this, she provides a more nuanced approach to the debates around the broader issues of the medicalization of women’s deviance – one that reveals some of the political dangers inherent in hasty critiques of infanticide law, and shows the value of careful interdisciplinary analysis for studies in the history of law and socio-legal relations. Drawing on a wide range of original data sources (provincial and federal indictment case files, coroner’s records, reported legal cases, Hansard Parliamentary Debates, official crime statistics, media reports, and expert medical texts), Kramar presents a detailed picture of the developments, revealing the often ironic consequences of attempts to rationalize this area of law. An established feminist critique of "infanticide" as an inappropriately medical concept is shown to have been largely unhelpful, misconstruing the phenomenon’s history and significance, and lending support to calls for a "get tough" approach Unwilling Mothers, Unwanted Babies makes an important contribution to the international literature on maternal neonaticide as well as the medicalization of deviance, and will be of interest to those working in law, sociology, criminology, women’s studies, and gender history.

Childless by Marriage

Childless by Marriage PDF Author: Sue Fagalde Lick
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781733685238
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
First you marry a man who does not want children. He cheats and you divorce him. Then you marry the love of your life and find out he does not want to have children with you either. The three he has are more than enough. Although you always wanted to be a mother, you decide he is worth the sacrifice, expecting to have a long happy life together. But that's not what happens. This is the story of how a woman becomes childless by marriage and how it affects every aspect of her life. This is the book of my heart, the one I had to write. Ever since I realized I was not going to have children, I have felt recurring grief and an emptiness in my heart. I am different from most women, but I have found that I am not alone. There are many of us childless women, and I think it's important to share our stories about what it's like when you don't have children in a world where most girls grow up to become mothers. I hope this book offers comfort to those who are childless and understanding to those who are not. If it makes you smile here and there, even better.

100 Years of the Infanticide Act

100 Years of the Infanticide Act PDF Author: Karen Brennan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1509961666
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
This book provides the first comprehensive and detailed analysis of the Infanticide Act and its impact in England and Wales and around the world. It is 100 years since an Infanticide Act was first passed in England and Wales. The statute, re-enacted in 1938, allows for leniency to be given to women who kill their infants within the first year of life. This legislation is unique and controversial: it creates a specific offence and defence that is available only to women who kill their biological infants. Men and other carers are not able to avail of the special mitigation provided by the Act, nor are women who kill older children. The collection brings together leading experts in the field to offer important insights into the history of the law, how it works today, the impact and legacy of the statute and potential futures of infanticide laws around the world. Contributors consider the Act in practice in England and Wales, the ways it has been portrayed in the British media and justifications for and criticisms of the provision of special treatment for women who kill their infants within a year of birth. It also looks at the criminal justice responses to infanticide in other jurisdictions, such as Australia, Ireland, Sweden and the United States of America.

Criminalized Mothers, Criminalizing Mothering

Criminalized Mothers, Criminalizing Mothering PDF Author: Joanne Minaker
Publisher: Demeter Press
ISBN: 1926452798
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
As the fastest growing prison population worldwide, more and more women are living in cages and most of them are mothers. This alarming trend has huge ramifications for women, children and communities across the globe. Empathy for mothers behind bars and concern for criminalized mothers in the community is in short supply. Mothers are criminalized for their vulnerabilities and for making unpopular but difficult choices under material and ideological conditions not of their own choosing. Criminalized Mothers, Criminalizing Mothering shines a spotlight on mothers who are, by law or social regulation, criminalized and examines their troubles and triumphs. This book offers a critical and compassionate lens on social (in)justice, mass incarceration, and collective miseries women experience (i.e., economic inequality, gendered violence, devalued care work, lone-parenting etc.). This book is also about mothers’ encounters with systems of control, confinement, and criminalization, but also their experiences of care.

Locating Law, 3rd Edition

Locating Law, 3rd Edition PDF Author: Elizabeth Comack
Publisher: Fernwood Publishing
ISBN: 1773633244
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
Praise for the second edition: “This book is the best available for teaching the role of law in society and making sense of how it operates within the (inter)connections of race, class and gender dynamics often perpetuating oppression. … Locating Law is essential for undergraduate students in justice, sociology and criminology.” – Margot Hurlbert, University of Regina “Students regularly tell me that Locating Law is their favourite book out of the selections for the Law and Society course. The case studies are sufficiently different from one another that the students deepen their general knowledge, and they appreciate the fact that the chapters are written in a style they can understand.” – Jennifer Jarman, Lakehead University A primary concern within the study of law has been to understand the “law-society” relation. Underlying this concern is the belief that law has a distinctly social basis; it both shapes — and is shaped by — the society in which it operates. This book explores the law-society relation by locating law within the nexus of race/class/gender/sexuality relations in society. In addition to updating the material in the theoretical and substantive chapters, this third edition of Locating Law includes three new contributions: sentencing law and Aboriginal peoples; corporations and the law; and obscenity and indecency legislation. The analyses offered in the book are sure to generate discussion and debate and, in the process, enhance our understanding of law’s location.

Abortion

Abortion PDF Author: Belinda Bennett
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351961241
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 958

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Book Description
Abortion remains one of the most complex and controversial issues in contemporary law and bioethics. This volume draws together key essays from leading scholars on the ethical and regulatory aspects of abortion. The essays explore the complex issues of personhood, prenatal life and reproductive rights, international perspectives on the regulation of abortion, health professionals and the provision of abortion services, and prenatal diagnosis and abortion. This volume will be an invaluable tool for all those interested in this challenging area.

"Don't be So Gay!"

Author: Donn Short
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774823267
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Drawing on interviews with queer youth and their allies in the Toronto area, the author considers the effectiveness of safe school legislation and concludes that the current legislation is often more responsive than proactive.

The New Lawyer

The New Lawyer PDF Author: Julie Macfarlane
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774858192
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Today’s justice system and the legal profession have rendered the “lawyer-warrior” notion outdated, shifting toward conflict resolution rather than protracted litigation. The new lawyer’s skills go beyond court battles to encompass negotiation, mediation, collaborative practice, and restorative justice. In The New Lawyer, Julie Macfarlane explores the evolving role of practitioners, articulating legal and ethical complexities in a variety of contexts. The result is a thought-provoking exploration of the increasing impact of alternative strategies on the lawyer-client relationship, as well as on the legal system itself.

On the Outside

On the Outside PDF Author: Melissa Munn
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774825391
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
From the passage of Bill C-10, with its punitive, tough-on-crime provisions, to sensationalist media accounts of dangerous ex-convicts, it is evident that Canada is a country that is taking an increasingly hard line on crime. In reality, however, the vast majority of prisoners who serve out their sentences do not re-offend but rather reintegrate into society and never see the inside of a prison cell again. The lack of discussion regarding those who “make good” perpetuates the illusion that most ex-prisoners pose a danger to the public and renders invisible the complex and sometimes treacherous path out of prison. On the Outside illuminates that journey, exploring the post-carceral lives of men who have successfully resettled into the community after serving at least a decade in Canada’s penitentiaries. Discussing the transition from imprisonment, release, and re-entry through to the challenges of resettlement, this book will change the way you think about Canada’s prisoners and open up the debate on the perils of tough-on-crime legislation.

Reaction and Resistance

Reaction and Resistance PDF Author: Dorothy E. Chunn
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774840366
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In this timely volume, contributors from various disciplines analyze reaction and resistance to feminism in several areas of law and policy � child custody, child poverty, sexual harassment, and sexual assault � and in a number of institutional sites, such as courts, legislatures, families, the mainstream media, and the academy. Collectively, their studies paint a complicated, often contradictory, picture of feminism, law, and social change, offering feminists and activists empirically grounded knowledge to develop legal and political strategies for change.