Critical Caribbean Perspectives on Preventing Gender-Based Violence

This book explores the widespread problem of gender-based violence in the Anglophone Caribbean, exploring reasons for its perpetuation and proposing viable policy and programming solutions to prevent it. Drawing on the work of a multidisciplinary team of Caribbean researchers and practitioners, the book explores the ways in which violence victimisation and perpetration have been socially and institutionally shaped, and supported by fixed gender codes. Key themes in the book include the institutional frameworks and structural inequalities that perpetuate gender-based violence, the role of the church both in perpetuating the problem and its potential to combat it, the role of law, access to justice, and governmental and non-governmental responses to gender-based violence. The book covers violence against women, but also explores women as perpetrators, men and boys as victims, and gender-based violence against young persons. It also demonstrates the ways in which gender-based violence can further marginalise already marginalised groups, such as members of the LBTQ+ community or persons with disabilities. Bridging the divide between academia, government, and civil society, this book challenges the normalisation of gender-based violence in the Anglophone Caribbean and proposes viable, culturally relevant solutions for prevention. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners working on issues related to gender, the Caribbean, global development, criminology, and human rights.

Ramona Biholar is Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica. She is the author of Transforming Discriminatory Sex Roles and Gender Stereotyping: The Implementation of Article 5(a) CEDAW for the Realisation of Women's Right to Be Free from Gender-Based Violence in Jamaica. Dacia L. Leslie is Research Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica. She is the author of Recidivism in the Caribbean. Improving the Reintegration of Jamaican Ex-prisoners.

Critical Inquiries of Gender-Based Violence in the Anglophone Caribbean: An Introduction Ramona Biholar, Chapter 1: Looking Back to Move Forward: A Historical Reflection of Gender-Based Violence and Intimate Partner Violence in Jamaica During Slavery Dalea Marie Bean, Chapter 2: Gendering "Smadditisation": Labour and Violence in the (De)Colonisation of Afro-Jamaica Consciousness Marvin D. Sterling, Chapter 3: Discriminatory Laws: The Normalisation of Sexual Violence in Anglophone Caribbean Sexual Violence Laws Ramona Biholar, Chapter 4: Gender-Based Violence against Caribbean Women: Femicide - A Major Gap in the Legislative Framework Barbara Evelyn Bailey, Chapter 5: The Role of Sexual Offence Courts in Furthering the Feminist Project of Eliminating Sexual Violence and Women's Subordination Anika Gray, Chapter 6: The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Reframing the Discourse of Sexual Violence in the Anglophone Caribbean Janeille Zorina Matthews, Chapter 7: The Church, IPV and LBTQ+ in Jamaica: An Initial Conversation Anna Kasafi Perkins, Chapter 8: Psst, My Sexy Friend: Investigating Women's Experiences of Hetero/Sexist Harassment in Public Spaces in Barbados Karen Andrea Philip, Chapter 9: Restoring the Lives of Boys on the Margins in Trinidad and Tobago: Lessons from State-Led and Civil Society Interventions Godfrey St. Bernard, Shivana Chankar, and Safia King, Chapter 10: Violence Against Persons With Disabilities and the Responsiveness of the Justice System in Jamaica Floyd Morris, Conclusion: Towards Ending All Forms of Gender-Based Violence in the Anglophone Caribbean Dacia L. Leslie