Discussion

The criminal and justice system in many parts of the world such as South Africa still perpetuates gender inequality. The major contributing factor to gender inequality in the criminal and justice system comes from the preservation of traditional patriarchal values as well as behaviors that only serve to protect violence against women. For instance, the entire concept of women’s rights is not understood correctly with many people still holding the mentality that women are children and possessions that can be bought by men. The mindset of seeing violence against women in society as a small fraction of social problems in society is terrifying. For example, a woman known as Sophia recounts in the video how she visited a police station to report her husband for battering her, but the police only accept to arrest the husband in exchange for sex. It is, therefore, important to state that the criminal justice system in South Africa also contributes to the culture of violence against women.

The criminal justice system increases women’s vulnerabilities to violence in multiple ways. For instance, when a woman reports an issue to the police and the police take advantage of such an issue to prey on her, it brings a lot of fear to report subsequent cases in the future. There is no difference between a police officer who demands sex from women and other men who gang rape women in society. Most women feel alone in South Africa because they are not even safe at the hands of police officers. Based on the video, the police in South Africa increase the vulnerability of women to violence because they limit the ability of women to seek legal redress. There is inadequate training to the police so that they can boost the strength and confidence of women to report any acts of violence perpetrated against them based on the patriarchal and outdated cultural bias of women.

Reply

Amazing post!

I agree that the criminal justice system in South Africa perpetrates violence against women. The police have the responsibility to protect all people without any prejudice based on gender, age, color, and age. However, from the video, I accept that the police do not only perpetrate acts of violence against women, but they also enhance their vulnerability. For instance, Sophia Boyers reports an act of violence against her by the husband to the police, but the police promise to act if offered sex. I concur that it is sad for the police to behave in such an unprofessional manner. It is important to retrain the police and also introduce massive reforms in the criminal justice system to enable women to develop confidence in the justice system. However, if there are insufficient follow-ups, legal protection to women who report gender-based violence by the police, there will be more violence against women.

Reference

https://wwnorton.com/common/mplay/6.11/?p=/college/socio7dvd/&f=all_different_all_equal&ft=mp4&cc=1