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Chapter
Victoria's new homicide laws: provocative reforms or more stories of women 'asking for it'?
DOI link for Victoria's new homicide laws: provocative reforms or more stories of women 'asking for it'?
Victoria's new homicide laws: provocative reforms or more stories of women 'asking for it'? book
Victoria's new homicide laws: provocative reforms or more stories of women 'asking for it'?
DOI link for Victoria's new homicide laws: provocative reforms or more stories of women 'asking for it'?
Victoria's new homicide laws: provocative reforms or more stories of women 'asking for it'? book
ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the implications of and limitations with the narrative turn in studies of the relationship between men, masculinities and male violence in the area of crime and criminology. In comparison, as Ramsey has recently observed, the decision taken in the Australian states of Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia to abolish the provocation defence are among 'the boldest strides towards a feminist transformation of homicide law'. While there is some evidence to suggest the reforms have produced some positive outcomes for women defendants who kill their abusive partners, it is to tell if the intent behind the Victorian legislature is being realised. A specific concern raised by the Middendorp case was whether, in the absence of the partial defence of provocation, defensive homicide was becoming its replacement. In 2008, Western Australia became the third Australian state to pass legislation repealing the controversial rule of law that provocation reduces murder to manslaughter.