Policing gender-based violence: beyond penal populism

With the growing awareness of gender-based violence and the tragic events of femicides in Italy, the question of how to protect women's rights and restore gender justice is being asked with renewed urgency. Feminist activists and theorists have long argued against a purely punitive approach to violence against women, which relies on the force of law and punishment. Not only has criminalisation been found to have a negative impact on victims of male violence (through blaming and shaming), but the enforcement of penal populism has also been accused of reproducing existing patriarchies rather than overcoming them. In the current debate on criminal justice as a response to violence against women, it is therefore all the more important to rediscover the teachings of critical feminist criminology as exemplified in the work of Gerlinda Smaus, recently published in Italian. The development of a critical feminist criminology offers us the opportunity to expose penal populism in the fight against gender-based violence and leads us to overcome both gender essentialism and the essentialism of crime and criminals.

We propose an academic panel and an expert roundtable to confront recent research conducted at SNS on different manifestations of gender-based-violence with insights from critical feminist criminology. The academic panel intends to scrutinise both the Italian and European context of policing gender-based-violence in light of critical feminist insights. In the roundtable, we discuss the insufficiencies of a ‘law and order approach’ often labelled as ‘penal populism’ to tackle the new manifestations and challenges of gender-based violence, as, for instance, harassment and discrimination in the digital sphere. The participants will explore how a progressive agenda to promote gender justice and prevent violence can look like.

• Francesca Ursula Bitetto - Università degli studi di Bari Aldo Moro
• Tamar Pitch, Università di Perugia
• Brunilda Pali, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 
• Johannes Feest, University of Bremen
• Encarna Bodelon Gonzalez, Autonomous University of Barcelona
• Donatella Della Porta, Anastasia Barone, Giada Bonu Rosenkranz, Scuola Normale Superiore
• Manuela Caiani, Francesca Feo, Scuola Normale Superiore
• Guendalina Simoncini, Giuliana Sorci, Hans-Jörg Trenz, Scuola Normale Superiore
• Renata Pepicelli, Università di Pisa, Sportello Interuniversitario Pisano contro la Violenza di Genere
• Giuditta Creazzo, Centro Senza Violenza, Bologna
• FIG Florence Intersectionality and Gender, Scuola Normale Superiore

Preliminary Program  

14:00 - 16:45 Academic panel

Panel Contributions

Part 1: Towards a critical feminist criminology (14.00-15.15)

• Tamar Pitch, Università di Perugia: The legacy of feminist punitivism and the populist challenge
• Brunilda Pali, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven  and Johannes Feest, University of Bremen: The work of Gerlinda Smaus in the current debate on punitive populism
• Encarna Bodelon Gonzalez, Autonomous University of Barcelona: Gender and Domination

Part 2: Research contributions (15.30.-16.45)

• Donatella della Porta, Anastasia Barone, Giada Bonu Rosenkranz, Scuola Normale Superiore: From gender-based violence as an emergency to patriarchy as a structure. Exploring feminist movements’ contentious framing process in Italy
• Manuela Caiani, Francesca Feo, Scuola Normale Superiore: Modern ‘Sexism’ and the radical right
• Guendalina Simoncini, Giuliana Sorci and Hans-Jörg Trenz, Scuola Normale Superiore: Addressing digital gender-based violence

Roundtable: Policing gender-based violence: Beyond penal populism (17.00-18.30)

Moderator: Francesca Ursula Bitetto, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro

Participants:

• Tamar Pitch: Università di Perugia  
• Renata Pepicelli, Università di Pisa, Sportello Interuniversitario Pisano contro la Violenza di Genere
• Giuditta Creazzo, Centro Senza Violenza, Bologna
• FIG Florence Intersectionality and Gender, Scuola Normale Superiore

Entrance will be allowed up to the maximum capacity of the room.