In Defense of Abused Women: Rural Critical Criminology in the Courtroom

Abstract

Many critical criminologists assert that criminal courts only function on behalf of powerful interests. Nothing could be further from the truth. Drawing heavily on my recent work as an expert witness assisting rural battered women in conflict with the Kentucky legal system, the main objective of this paper is to show that a courtroom can be a site of progressive struggle and resistance. Indeed, the courtroom is what the late Ian Taylor defines as a “political place,” and this paper demonstrates that positive outcomes for incarcerated abused women can occur when rural critical criminologists enter this space.