Beyond Legal Neutrality: Feminist Legal Theory, Gender-Based Violence, and Carceral Feminism

Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality

Year: 2026

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Beyond Legal Neutrality: Feminist Legal Theory, Gender-Based Violence, and Carceral Feminism

Margherita Gossi

ABSTRACT:

This article traces the development of feminist legal theory in the analysis of gender-based violence, from the feminist debates of the 1970s to contemporary critiques of carceral feminism. By challenging the presumed neutrality of law and emphasizing its gendered nature, the article highlights the central role of feminist legal scholarship in framing violence against women as a social and legal issue, as well as in developing a conceptual vocabulary capable of revealing the power relations embedded in gendered social structures. The analysis then focuses on the limitations that emerged with the consolidation of the so-called mainstream feminist model, particularly the construction of women as “victim subjects” and the gradual alignment of parts of feminist legal theory with punitive and security-oriented responses. Drawing on postcolonial, post-structuralist, and queer feminist perspectives, the article critically examines essentialist and binary approaches to gender-based violence, showing how an excessive reliance on criminal law may reinforce mechanisms of exclusion, marginalization, and social control rather than addressing the structural roots of the phenomenon. In its concluding section, the article outlines possible future directions for feminist legal theory, advocating a shift toward an analysis of gender-based violence grounded in power relations and structural inequalities; from this perspective, it calls for a critical reassessment of the relationship between law and state violence and for a move beyond the carceral paradigm, in order to develop legal tools capable of addressing the social and cultural conditions that sustain gender-based violence.

Keywords: Gendered Violence; Penal State; Mainstream Feminism; Punitive Approach; Victim Subject