The Vulnerable (M)other and the Autonomous Legal Subject: Rethinking Vulnerability in Criminal Law

Singh, Sarah ORCID: 0000-0003-4968-2201 (2023) The Vulnerable (M)other and the Autonomous Legal Subject: Rethinking Vulnerability in Criminal Law. International Journal of Law in Context. pp. 1-19.

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Abstract

In this article I apply Fineman’s vulnerability thesis to explore the ways in which vulnerability is constructed and mobilised in a criminal law context. Using a ‘failure-to-protect’ offence as a case study reveals contemporary constructs of vulnerability as both a problem to be solved and gendered. Constructing women as pathologically vulnerable allows the state and its institutions to downplay the situational vulnerability of women, evading responsibility for tackling VAWG. Responsibilising women to manage risks to children posed by male violence requires that women undertake ‘safety work’, rendering them vulnerable to both moral and legal sanction if not performed adequately. Replacing the autonomous subject with the relationally vulnerable subject generates new understandings of the ways entwining femininity and vulnerability shores up the (male-coded) autonomous legal subject. Moreover, reconceiving vulnerability as universal reveals the potential of the vulnerable subject for a more inclusive criminal subject who is both embedded and embodied.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	11 Sep 2023 08:05
Last Modified:	11 Oct 2023 13:37
DOI:	10.1017/S174455232300023X
Open Access URL:	https://doi.org/10.1017/S174455232300023X
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3172646