About Us

Justice For Women is a feminist organisation that campaigns and supports women who have fought back against or killed violent male partners, women like Sara Thornton, Kiranjit Ahluwalia, Emma Humphreys, Diana Butler and Rose Swan (see Case Histories).

We campaign for changes in the defences to murder so that they encompass and reflect women's experiences of domestic violence. Currently, the law on homicide is based on men's experience of violence. Justice For Women campaigns for changes in the law, monitors the response of the criminal justice system to male violence and challenges the system's failure to deal effectively and adequately with violent and abusive men.

We also campaign to increase awareness of violence against women by known men and the profound effects this has on women and their children.

Justice For Women is made up of women from all walks of life, legal practitioners, researchers, activists and women working in the field of male violence. Justice For Women began in 1990 and there are groups in West Yorkshire, London and the North East. Over the years we have developed substantial expertise, during this time we have been involved in a number of significant cases resulting in cases at the Court of Appeal that overturned the original murder convictions (Kiranjit Ahluwalia 1992, Emma Humphreys 1995, Sara Thornton 1996, Diana Butler 1999).

Men's violence towards women they know is a very common phenomenon. Widely accepted estimates show that at least one in three women will be subjected to such violence at some time in their lives and one in six women are raped by their partners. It is estimated that only 2% of violent attacks on women are reported to the police, and that male violence again women constitutes one-quarter of all assaults recorded by the police.

Within England and Wales government statistics consistently show that approximately one-half of all women killed are killed by current or ex - male partners. This compares with an average of 9% of all men killed by female partners (Criminal Statistics England and Wales 1996).

Despite the fact that women are much more likely to be killed than to kill, women who kill their violent male partners or ex-partners are further victimised by a legal system that has been constructed, interpreted and implemented to fit men's experiences and men's homicidal responses. For instance, men who kill women often get their murder charges reduced to manslaughter on the pretext that of a woman's alleged infidelity or her 'nagging' tendencies.

Working with the early cases of Sara Thornton, Kiranjit Ahluwalia and Emma Humphreys revealed the gendered limitations of existing legal defences to a charge of murder. Since then Justice For Women has continued to campaign with women who have not had a fair deal from the law and for women's for women's experience to be recognised across the criminal justice system.