DONNE A PROCESSO: STEREOTIPI DI GENERE NEL RAGIONAMENTO GIURIDICO

This research deals with the broad debate on judicial stereotyping and, in particular, gender stereotyping. The dissertation aims at understanding how stereotyping is related to discrimination - both at a social and legal level -, to judicial reasoning and to the construction of models of female victims and female offenders. In this sense, the objectives pursued by the investigation were the following: 1) to identify the relevant elements of the notion of ‘stereotype’; 2) to recognise the operability of this notion in the legal sphere and, in particular, in judicial reasoning; 3) to identify the ways in which a stereotype can be present in judicial reasoning; 4) to verify the existence of profiles of women victims and perpetrators that influence judicial decision-making. The study, research and writing of this work have necessarily been guided by the adoption of a critical approach, from the perspective of deconstruction and reconstruction that is typical of the Critical Legal Theories. Specifically, the gender perspective has been adopted as a methodology that allows to unmask the automatisms that operate in cognitive and decision-making processes, deconstructing a social and legal reality strongly influenced by the assignment, among others, of gender roles. Furthermore, this research adopted the methodology of the social and legal sciences. Firstly, the research started with a a review of the available literature on the subject. Secondly, a jurisprudential investigation has been carried out, followed by the analysis of the judicial decisions. In terms of the structure of the work, the first chapter examined the relationship between cognitive processes, group dynamics and discriminatory practices, drawing upon insights from the psychological literature. In the second chapter, the necessity of counteracting judicial stereotyping was emphasised and some methodological proposals for counteracting judicial stereotyping were analysed. In the third chapter, an examination was conducted of the ways in which stereotypes may manifest in norms, facts and scientific knowledge within the context of judicial reasoning. This was achieved through a review of case law from a range of national and international judicial bodies. Finally, the fourth chapter presented three profiles of women representative of both ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ status. In particular, the profiles of three women were examined: the woman who has been the victim of sexual violence, the woman who has killed her abusive husband and the woman who has killed her child. This examination was performed through the analysis of the judicial reasoning used in the motivation of the judgements of some particularly relevant cases of Italian judicial bodies.