Gender Violence - Paperback

by Sally Engle Merry (Author)

Taking an anthropological perspective, this comprehensive book offers a highly readable and concise overview of what constitutes gender violence, its social context, and important directions in intervention and reform.

• Uses stories, personal accounts, case studies and a global perspective to provide a vivid and engaging portrait of forms of violence in gendered relationships
• Extensively covers many forms of gender violence including domestic violence, rape, murder, wartime sexual assault, prison and police violence, female genital cutting, dowry murders, female infanticide, "honor" killings, and sex trafficking
• Examines major approaches to diminishing gender violence such as criminalization, batterer retraining programs, and human rights interventions
• Highlights the role of social movements in defining the problem and mobilizing reforms in the US and internationally

Back Jacket

This concise introduction defines gender violence in social and cultural terms. Through personal accounts and ethnographic case studies, Sally Engle Merry provides a vivid portrait of many forms of violence in gendered relationships. Domestic violence, rape, murder, wartime sexual assault, prison and police violence, murder, female genital cutting, female infanticide, "honor" killings, and trafficking are all analyzed extensively. Merry examines major social movements and other efforts to diminish gender violence such as criminalization, batterer retraining programs, and human rights interventions.

Gender Violence: A Cultural Perspective challenges readers to confront gender violence as a social problem deeply embedded in inequalities of class, race, and nation as well as gender. It offers a highly readable and clear overview of what constitutes gender violence, its social context, and its history as a public issue. It is invaluable as a guide to this complex and important social problem.

Author Biography

Sally Engle Merry is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Law and Society Program at New York University. Her recent books include Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice (2006), and The Practice of Human Rights: Tracking Law between the Local and the Global, (co-edited with Mark Goodale; 2007). She is past president of the Law and Society Association and the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology.