The Influence of Adversarial Conduct in Legal Procedures on Women's Access to Justice: Female Experiences with Enemy Criminal Law Practices in the Turkish Judicial System

The concept of enemy behaviour towards women has a long history. In the historical period, this enmity appeared in different shapes. In ancient Greece, it was expressed by philosophers and poets humiliating women, while in the Middle Ages witch trials were established and women were judged according to irrational reasons. Hostile attitudes developed against women in many areas of social life cause women to be excluded from social life and to hesitate to attend social life. Law is one of the fields where women face these prejudices. The masculine structuring within classical legal practices causes women to avoid accessing the justice. Both during the complaint and during the trial, women are confronted with mizojinist attitudes and practices that prevent them from being a part of the justice system. In this study, the problem of women's access to justice has been analysed based on the reflections of misogyny in law. However, the hostility that prevents women from accessing the justice system is addressed according to the theory of enemy criminal law. In Turkey, it has been observed that women and males receive disparate treatment in courtrooms, resulting in a prevailing perception of impunity in cases involving crimes against women. Nonetheless, in instances where women are defendants, the judiciary adjudicates them with utmost severity. This condition has led women to lose faith in receiving equal treatment in court, resulting in their reluctance to seek access to justice. This scenario was studied through a gender-based study of enemy criminal law, as addressing such attitudes and activities just through the concept of enmity would not yield adequate legal knowledge. Within this framework, court documents were examined, and solicitors from several cities were interrogated. The influence of a gender-biased enemy criminal law culture on women's access to justice was demonstrated through field study.