This synopsis will be about the journal article titled ‘Domestic Violence’ by Sally Parsloe. This essay will summarise the article, and assess its main arguments. The topic of domestic violence is an important one to study as so many people experience it at some stage in their life. Although both men and women can be victims of domestic violence, the article focuses only on domestic violence against women and as a result will be the focus of the essay. Domestic violence is described as violent behaviour towards a romantic partner this is often within the home. The article is focused on the idea that the legal justice system fails to protect women. The main argument in the article is about the difficulties that women face in terms of gaining…show more content… The author begins the article with a question that sets the tone of what the whole argument will be about. The question is ‘is it naïve to expect protection for women from a white, male, upper class system of justice?’ this encourages the reader to acknowledge the idea that it is a man’s world and as the laws are by upper class white males then surely the system will be structured to protect them. Sally Parsloe argues that lawmakers have made the legal system so unattainable to the point that it is difficult for the typical working class person to grasp or understand the system. For instance the legal terms used are not easily understood by the average citizen, according to Parsloe this is a problem when it comes to marriage disputes such as domestic violence. One of the areas of domestic abuse that she addresses is the ‘restriction of legal aid’. Although many women qualify for the legal aid system, the process that the application has to go through is unnecessarily difficult and time consuming. The article also states that it is a common occurrence for emergency legal aid to be refused, an example is given of an incident where the victim is refused emergency legal aid due to the fact that the violence was such a normal occurrence in her daily life that it…show more content… The women are expected to be rational and remain rational this ignores the fact that there may be factors within the case that prevent the woman from making rational decisions that are expected of her. The victim is sometimes treated like she ‘should have known better’. As a result, when decisions are being made the women are made to feel like the court is doing them a favour so they should be grateful. This leads on to the topic of ‘victim blaming’ which is also another important aspect that Sally addresses in her article. She claims that due to the hierarchy of the genders, whenever there is violence towards women by men, the woman ends up getting the blame. For instance the claim that she should’ve ‘taken more precaution to protect herself from her attacker’. When it becomes public knowledge that a woman was failed by the system, then the police are criticised for failing to enforce the correct protection after a complaint has been filed, but it has to be noted that the court’s response to women of domestic violence is equally just as bad. As a result, the criminal justice system is failing to protect women when it comes to domestic violence. Parsloe concludes her article by talking about the needs for reform the way that the justice system treats offenders with leniency. The current