Violence and Socio-Legal Interventions in Gender and Sexuality

Violence, Miller has argued, ‘is foundational to gender, and vice versa’,1 whilst Gersen and Suk noted in the US context following Lawrence v Texas2 that ‘violence and subordination are now the key concepts for illegal sex’3 with Fischel observing that ‘sex laws are today more calibrated to routing subordination and violence than to preserving marriage and morality’.4 In other words, as the legal landscape regulating gender and sexuality has shifted, so too have the justifications relating to law. However, power – and its regulation through criminal law – can be seen as a key concept worthy of further exploration for the varying ways that the criminal law constructs and contests its operation. [Opening paragraph]