Danielle Mele
Dr. Mary E Bailey
Wednesday November 25, 2009
SSH 205
Final essay:
Silence is not the answer:
Female abuse and the Criminal justice system
Danielle Mele
Silence is not the answer,
Female abuse and the Criminal justice system
“On December 6, 1989, a man entered the School of Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique, University of Montreal. He went to several classrooms, saying to women, “You have no right being here.” He separated them from the men .He then systematically murdered 14 young women.
In his suicide letter he wrote:
"...I have decided to send the feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker."
The Montreal Massacre was an extreme event, but not an isolated one, nor simply the act of a “madman.” More than one-half of women in Canada have been sexually assaulted; 97% of sex offenders are men. Violence against women happens when men feel they have the right to hurt and think they can get away with it. It can happen to any of us. It touches all of us.” (December 6, 1989 Montreal Massacre of 14 women. December 1, 1999. www.section15.ca.)
The Montreal Massacre is an example of a very severe case of female abuse, for anything like this to occur again would be absolutely devastating. We cannot ignore female abuse.
Society is unaware of the severity or amount of violent domestic and sexual abuse crimes that are partaking and more importantly how much of it is going un-reported or being dismissed, thus nothing is going to be done about the abuse. The reason these crimes are not being reported has much to do with the criminal justice system and the use of discretion, as well as the embarrassment and shame abused women feel.
The paper will focus on the all females evaluating domestic abuse, child abuse and sexual abuse, discussing why it is still happening and what is being done to decrease the violent crimes. Throughout the paper it will come apparent that the use of discretion within the criminal justice...