Abstract

Domestic violence is a relevant problem about gender; this is manifested, for example, in the creation of long-standing international and national legal institutions to control this problem. However, given the structural nature of this violence and its relationship with patriarchal schemes rooted in society, it is difficult for the mediation of law by itself to result in the total fulfillment of this commitment. This work contributes to a novel and situated understanding of the intervention of legality in gender-based violence in the domestic sphere. The novelty lies in visualizing the notion of legal consciousness as an analytical framework, i.e., how legality sustains its power despite constant failure to fulfill its promises. The ethnographic method was applied to two family courts to discuss this issue. The fieldwork reveals that family courts use the notion of risk to provide preventive measures, which allows intervention in the life experiences of complainants. This is how the promise of control of this type of gender-based violence that is made through law is transformed into action.