Homicide Law Reform, Gender and the Provocation Defence

Kate Fitz-Gibbon is a Lecturer in Criminology at Deakin University, Australia. Her research focuses on legal responses to lethal violence and effects of criminal law reform in Australian and international jurisdictions. She has advised government bodies on the law of homicide in several Australian jurisdictions and has published on homicide law reform in leading criminology and law journals.

'In this outstanding work, Kate Fitz-Gibbon explains, in fascinating detail, how legislatures across the globe have struggled to adapt the provocation defence to the modern world. Fitz-Gibbon brings the issue of gender to the fore, in deconstructing and reconstructing a defence to murder long criticised for its leniency towards men who kill in anger.' - Professor Jeremy Horder Department of Law, London School of Economics, UK "This is an important study of diversity in the evolution of the law of criminal homicide as legislatures respond to the continuing crisis in intimate partner homicides. It is unique in Australian criminal law scholarship in its reliance on the comparative experience of judges, prosecutors, defenders and law reformers in England, Victoria and New South Wales." - Ian Leader-Elliott Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia School of Law and Emeritus Fellow, Adelaide University School of Law, Australia "This book, rooted in exemplary research, offers a unique opportunity for all those involved in criminology and the criminal justice process to think hard about the persistence of gendered thinking and the limitations that poses for those likely to be in receipt of the strongest sentences a court can impose. It will become a landmark text on this issue: deservedly so." - Sandra Walklate, Eleanor Rathbone Chair of Sociology, University of Liverpool, UK

• Introduction: The Partial Defence of Provocation PART I: THE PROBLEM OF PROVOCATION 1. Male Honour and the Provocation Defence 2. Jealous Men and Provocative Women 3. The Plight of the Provoked Battered Woman PART II: ADDRESSING THE PROVOCATION PROBLEM - DIVERGENT APPROACHES TO HOMICIDE LAW REFORM 4. Addressing the Provocation Problem 5. Abolishing Provocation - the Victorian Experience 6. Replacing Provocation - the English Experience 7. Restricting Provocation – the New South Wales Experience PART III: THE INTENDED AND UNINTENDED EFFECTS OF HOMICIDE LAW REFORM 8. New Laws, Same Problems - Alternative Categories to Murder 9. The Difficulty of Law Reform for Battered Women Who Kill 10. Complicating the Law of Homicide 11. Questions of Sentencing in the Provocation Debate Conclusion: The Partial Defence of Provocation and Lessons for Law Reform