Femicide and the Limits of Carceral Feminism in Croatia

This paper will critically explore the need for abolition feminism in Croatia drawing on recent introduction of the new, separate criminal offence of femicide, expanding the grounds for the arrest and increasing the sentences for rape. This recent development comes a year after unsuccessful lobbying by the women’s organisation and centre-left political parties. The overlap of interests between the centre-right ruling party and a celebrity-led initiative against domestic and sexual violence culminated in criminal justice reform. I argue that this should not be seen as a victory for victims of gendered violence but an expansion of the carceral powers coupled with neoliberal ideology. Drawing on abolition feminist theories as well as decolonial feminism, this paper will problematise the overreliance on the criminal punishment system as the main tool for preventing gendered violence alongside the current underfunded welfare and educational system and the democratic backsliding in post-conflict, post-socialist Croatia. While feminist debates around the carceral solutions for gendered violence have been prominent in the so-called Global North, it is time to reevaluate these so-called solutions for South-Eastern Europe as well. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted with a wide range of gender-based violence experts and analysing socio-legal commentaries on femicide I problematise the mainstreaming of gender-based violence articulated by the 'older' generations of feminists in Croatia. I argue that their specific kind of feminism heavily relies on ‘Western’ liberal articulations of carceral solutions and private donors while leaving the social and community landscape unchanged. There is emerging space for a 'new' generation of abolition feminists across the ex-Yugoslav space addressing the issue of gender-based violence and community responsibility.