Hallevy on Criminalization of Oppresion Against Women in the Name of Culture

Gabriel Hallevy, Ono Academic College, Faculty of Law, has published Culture Offenses Instead of Cultural Defense – Criminalization of Oppression Against Women in the Name of Culture. Here is the abstract.

About five thousand women are murdered by their families each year in the name of family honor. These crimes are committed in both advanced western countries and countries of origin. Honor killings are not the only offenses committed against women in the name of culture. When the perpetrators are charged in court, they frequently claim the “ignorance of law” defense, since they have been behaving that way for generations, and why would the legal situation be different in their new homeland. In most cases, this claim is rejected, but it is used to mitigate punishments down to ridiculous sentences. Most western countries share this problem. This chapter argues that the mistake of law defense is irrelevant in relation to culture-based crimes against women.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.