Rape: «How those who are accused deny, attack and reverse»

Spendenbutton / Faire un don
Gender Law Newsletter FRI 2024#2, 01.06.2024 - Newsletter abonnieren

USA – CRIMINAL LAW

18 October 2023: invited contribution from Dr. Angela HEFTI

Ailyn Aguilar QUINONEZ and Tamara KUENNEN, Turning the tables: How those who are accused deny, attack and reverse, Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society, 18. Oktober 2023.

This article delves into retaliation strategies used by perpetrators of gender violence, focusing on intimate partner violence and the manipulation of narratives. The authors analyze three main retaliation tactics, also known as “DARVO”: (1) denial of allegations, (2) attacking the accuser's credibility, and (3) reversing roles to portray the accused as the victim.  DARVO aims at persuading the justice system to discredit the accusers’ credibility, e.g., based on stereotypes. The authors stress that naming the problem is important to focus the attention on the accused. The authors focus on DARVO in the context of defamation law suits, claims of parental alienation, where parents weaponize children as a form of control against the survivor, and mutual civil protection orders. This “litigation abuse” is expensive, stressful and can cause psychological harm to the survivor. The authors argue that naming abusers’ use of DARVO in the legal system, like naming the “credibility discounting” of women, has great potential to limit victim blaming by focusing on the accused. The authors also draw attention to the need to adopt Anti-SLAPP legislation (a SLAPP is a strategic lawsuit against public participation, aimed at intimidating a survivor). The authors contend that discussing DARVO is a step towards identifying litigation abuse, including in defamation lawsuits, child weaponization, and retaliation protection orders. This will protect the freedom of expression of those who have experienced abuse. Overall, the article discusses how these litigation tactics undermine justice and affect support systems for accusers and survivors. It considers the need for societal and judicial awareness to counteract these manipulative litigation strategies effectively.

Direct to the article (https://wjlgs.law.wisc.edu)