| Popis: |
Why is it that wherever and whenever scholars have looked in the English-speaking Caribbean, domestic violence complainants vanish from the courts? In pursuit of the answer to this question, I marshal two types of evidence. First, I review interdisciplinary research by scholars who have written about family, gender, and work in this region. I find that there is a place for violence in each of these categories. Next, I turn to a case history involving domestic violence from Trinidad. I examine the complex interactions between a victim and family members, neighbors, and legal officials, identifying their mutual participation in a culture of reconciliation. Cultures of reconciliation illuminate ideas about family, gender, work, and law that keep victims from pursuing legal remedies and buttress instead accommodation to everyday violence. I suggest that the concept of cultures of reconciliation is useful both: 1) as an analytical framework to capture how local ideas and practices coalesce into structural patterns that operate against the institutionalized forces of law; and 2) as a research tool for cross-cultural investigation and analysis. Identifying cultures of reconciliation can thus help us explain why domestic violence victims vanish from the courts. |
