NCJ Number
190217
Journal
Caribbean Journal of Criminology and Social Psychology Volume: 5 Issue: 1&2 Dated: January/July 2000 Pages: 154-164
Date Published
2000
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article highlights a group of battered women in a California prison for murdering their abusers.
Abstract
Women who leave their abusers are at substantially greater risk of being killed by the abuser than those who stay with their abuser. A small proportion of abused women end the violence by causing the death of their batterers. Before this event, many women make repeated but failed attempts to enlist the help of the justice system for their abusive situations. The same system that often fails to respond to woman abuse appears to prosecute with vigor the battered woman who kills, even though most women offenders of conjugal homicide have no history of criminal or violent behavior. Due to lack of solid data on women homicide victims and offenders, it is not known how many women serve prison sentences for the death of their abusive male partners. Current estimates of women in United States prisons for the deaths of abusers range from 800 to 2,000. A group of women prisoners at a penal institution in Southern California called Convicted Women Against Abuse (CWAA) provide support for one another and share their experiences as abused women and as convicted murderers who are serving life sentences for killing their abusers. Able to share portions of abusive and frightening incidents, most are unable to share the details of the painful homicide event. Through interviews and constructing their stories from beginning to end, many women were provided with a greater sense of relatedness among events where, previously, they had not seen clear connections. CWAA has influenced many in their quest to help others in abusive relationships. They inspired a support group for battered women on campus, provided advice to aid in the defense of battered women, and played an active role in a state-wide effort to gain clemency for battered women in prison. Appendix, 26 references