Exploring the Intersection of Gender, Victimization, and Criminalization: A Critical Analysis of Legal Frameworks

Abstract

In our civilization, we face numerous injustices. Some of these behaviors are essentially unacceptable, particularly those directed at women. These are classified as crimes, along with rape, dowry killings, mistreatment of wives by husbands or relatives, and so on, and they must be punished because of the nature of the offenses. There is continuing debate over whether or not to criminalize a variety of other behaviors and places, including prostitution, abortion, attempted suicide, and others.  There are other types of wrongdoing as well, such as cybercrime and sexual offenses in public service that is highly serious yet do not fall under the criminal definition. Therefore, certain grave crimes such as rape, dowry deaths, assaults, or other forms of criminal force against women, the sale or purchase of young girls for prostitution, and cruelty committed against women by husbands or relatives of such husbands are already included in our Pakistan penal code. However, other serious crimes such as cybercrime and sexual harassment in public places are not. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine which wrongdoings against women should be classified as crimes and punishable by law, as well as whether the penal code over-criminalizes these offenses and whether other wrongdoings should also be classified as crimes.