The University of Chicago Law School Roundtable Volume 9 | Issue 1 Article 4 1-1-2002 Towards a Feminist Theory of Violence Monica Pa Follow this and additional works at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/roundtable Recommended Citation Pa, Monica (2002) "Towards a Feminist Theory of Violence," The University of Chicago Law School Roundtable: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 4. Available at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/roundtable/vol9/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in The nivU ersity of Chicago Law School Roundtable by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. TOWARDS A FEMINIST THEORY OF VIOLENCE MONICA PAt INTRODUCTION: THE CONTEXT-STORIES AND STATISTICS While feminism has pushed to show that there is little difference between the sexes save biology, "recorded criminal behavior had remained a stubborn exception to this rule."' However, over the last ten years, women have broken through the glass ceiling of violent criminal offending. Women are now carjack- ing. in San Francisco, 14- and 15-year-old girls carjacked a 57-year-old female driver, locked the driver in the trunk of the car, drove her around the city, and then, upon letting her out of the car, pointed a .38 caliber pistol at her head and threatened to kill her.2 The girls were also armed with pepper spray, gloves, duct 4 tape, and knives.3 Their motive was to impress a local street gang. Women are now committing aggravated assault: "In Concord, New Hamp- shire, four girls surround(ed) a 14-year-old girl as she (got) off a school bus at the mobile home park where she lived and beat her with baseball bats."'5 In Vir- ginia, "a beauty queen named Traci Lippard broke into the home of her rival '6 and attacked the girl's father with a hammer." t B.A., University of California at Santa Cruz, 1998; J.D., New York University, 2002 (magna cum laude, Order of the Coil).