ABSTRACT
Victims of domestic violence in China constitute a vast yet mostly silent group. In this chapter, the author chooses to focus on a specific type of domestic violence—gender-based violence within a current or former romantic relationship that is directed against a person solely based upon his/her sex and gender identity. China’s Anti-Domestic Violence Law (henceforth, the DV Law) came into effect in March 2016. This landmark law, the first of its kind in China, represents a solid step, taken by the central and local governments, both to protect victims of gender-based violence and to galvanize the general public’s support of the fight against the violence. The author seeks to critically examine the DV Law’s implementation process, devoting special attention to the limitations with the law itself, and more importantly, the problems with the criminal justice-centric approach that the Chinese state has been taking to address the problem of gender-based violence. Based upon an in-depth analysis of a high-profile court case and seven assessments reports on the law implementation, the author leans to the conviction that the criminal justice-centric approach alone can neither change the socio-cultural context nor deliver the promise of ending the historical cycles of violence.
