NCJ Number
165519
Date Published
1996
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The battered woman syndrome has been used as a legal defense by women who have killed their spouses, but the author argues against the validity and acceptability of this defense.
Abstract
The battered woman syndrome theory holds that, due to repeated battering, the victim becomes completely passive. Both the battered woman and the betrayed man, however, have an alternative--they can remove themselves from the abusive relationship. Although a woman who kills an abusive husband may generate more sympathy than a man who kills an unfaithful wife, there are striking parallels between the two situations. Men are much more likely to kill women than vice versa, and feminists should hesitate before broadening the excuses available to murderers.