16 Inter-American Development Bank (Morrison and Biehl 1999), World Health Organization (World Health Organization 2002), the Panos Institute (Mirsky, 2003), and USAID (Guedes, 2004; White, Greene and Murphy, 2003)).

# **2.2   Interventions in the Justice Sector**<sup>**18**</sup>

## **2.2.1  Overview of GBV and the justice sector**

There are a number of ways that the justice sector may contribute to prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual violence: by sanctioning those who perpetrate crimes against women; by increasing awareness throughout society that physical or sexual violence against women is considered a crime; by strengthening women’s rights with regard to marriage, divorce, property and child custody; by increasing women’s access to the legal system; by increasing the range of interventions to protect victims; by correcting procedural and evidentiary problems in criminal prosecutions; and by reducing mistreatment of women and children by the law enforcement institutions themselves (National Research Council, 1998).

While the empirical evidence demonstrating a link between criminal justice and the prevention of intimate partner and sexual violence is somewhat weak, most researchers consider criminal justice reform to be a crucial component of efforts to reduce violence against women.<sup>19</sup> If nothing else, some argue, failure to sanction offenders sends a message that society condones violence against women (e.g. Larraín, 1999). Also, since law enforcement institutions in many settings inflict additional trauma on survivors of violence through bias and mistreatment by police, judges, forensic doctors, and other members of the justice system (Human Rights Watch, 1997), reducing bias and mistreatment by these institutions would be worthwhile as an end in itself.

At the same time, strengthening women’s rights may be just as important as criminal justice reforms in reducing GBV. In many settings—whether by law or in practice—women still have limited rights to voluntary marriage, inheritance, divorce, division of property, child custody, and child support. Strengthening women’s rights may strengthen the position of women in the household and make it easier for women to leave abusive partners once violence begins to escalate. Indeed, some legal aid programs have found that the greatest need expressed by women living in violent situations is not for criminal prosecution, but for assistance with divorce, property and child custody (for example, see Guedes et al., 2002).

> 18 The justice sector includes but is not limited to actors and institutions in the judicial system (courts, public defenders, etc.).  It also includes the legal framework of a country, which is drafted and approved the legislature, as well as the parts of the executive branch which deal with judicial issues, such as the ministry of justice and (generally) prosecutors.  Finally, the justice sector also includes civil society actors promoting knowledge of women’s legal rights, providing legal advice and services to survivors of GBV and lobbying to change existing legislation.

> 19  One of the few papers to document a link between a strong criminal justice response to GBV and lower rates of violence is Counts, Brown and Campbell (1999), who found that the lowest rates of violence against women in 16 societies studied occurred in societies that consistently imposed sanctions (including legal sanctions) on perpetrators.