Changes in public attitudes to violence have given rise to debates about the proper relationship between gender, violence and the role of the State. This study of Palestinians living in Israel examines the appropriateness of formal legal interventions in spousal assault cases for a community with different cultural values, including a mistrust of state intervention and the legal order. Structured interviews with welfare professionals in 55 cases of spousal assault reveal that, contrary to the aims of legislation designed to assist and support women, the law has had the paradoxical effect of further victimizing those very women seeking to rely on it. The Palestinian experience suggests that legal interventions need to be understood as complementing rather than substituting for more culturally sensitive community responses to spousal assault. The paper advocates raising the awareness of agents of social control about factors which hinder or promote the use of legal remedies.
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