Fatal relationships and gendered culpability : gender and responsibility in the social construction of homicide

Abstract

High-profile cases of homicide are frequently characterised by politicised claims regarding the 'responsibility' of men and women as both victims and offenders, especially where the violence is linked to issues of sexuality, gender, and intimate life. Drawing on focus group research, this thesis argues that attributions of responsibility occur within a cultural matrix at the intersection of personal and political life. A psychosocial analysis of focus group discussions suggests that contemporary constructions of responsibility for homicide are shaped by neoliberal and postfeminist forms of individualisation, linked to complex processes of emotional investment, identification and projection. The thesis rejects a simplistic account of discourses of violence as products of obvious norms, values and beliefs, and instead reveals how personal experience and psychological defence mechanisms intersect with larger political frameworks in collective attributions of guilt and responsibility for homicidal violence.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English