Journal Citation:
24 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS, 597-638 (1991).
The author notes that throughout the world, men who murder their wives encounter legal systems that are lenient toward their crimes; many legal systems treat the murder of the wife as a less serious crime than the murder of a stranger. This article examines three types of systems, viewing the plight of wives as a problem of international dimension. Section II examines criminal justice systems in Islamic countries that acquit or impose drastically reduced sentences on men who murder their adulterous wives. Section III explores a different kind of system, in which positive laws designed to protect women from their husbands remain un-enforced. Section IV examines two Western countries, Brazil and the United States, in which judges have created defenses for men who otherwise would not be protected under statutory law. [Descriptors: Violence Against Women, International]