Keywords
defense, provocation, offense, rage, male, violence, women, abolition, equality
Abstract
Recent amendments to the defence of provocation have limited access to the defence to those who are provoked by conduct that, if prosecuted, would have been an indictable offence punishable by at least five years imprisonment. The paper argues that these amendments are both over- and under-inclusive and fail to confront the central problem surrounding provocation which is that it privileges loss-of-control rage often in the context of male violence against women or in response to same-sex advances. The paper supports the abolition of the defence of provocation but only if mandatory minimum sentences for murder are abolished providing trial judgessufficient discretion in sentencing to consider the relevance of provocation.
Recommended Citation
Isabel Grant and Debra Parkes, "Equality and the Defence of Provocation: Irreconcilable Differences" (2017) 40:2 Dal LJ 455.
