What is a "Cultural Defense"?
The general arguments for and against the cultural defense and for its limited use are summarized in this module. Most salient to the subject of this curriculum is the deep concern that because domestic violence and marital rape are so widely accepted in cultures across the world – just as they were until very recently in our own – immigrant defendants can easily use cultural background as a defense to justify or excuse intimate partner battering and sexual assault. See Why Victims Don't Report: Cultural Considerations. For example, sexual assault and kidnapping have been defended as part of a marriage ritual in "marriage-by-capture" cases; similarly, bludgeoning a wife to death after learning of her infidelity has been excused as a normal reaction in a more violent culture.
Resources
Articles
Holly Maguigan, Cultural Evidence and Male Violence: Are Feminist and Multiculturalist Reformers on a Collision Course in Criminal Courts?, Vol. 70 New York University Law Review 36 (1995)