NCJ Number
198552
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 26 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2002 Pages: 655-673
Date Published
December 2002
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This article examines the impact of expert testimony on the battered woman syndrome on jurors’ decisions.
Abstract
This research used a juror simulation study to explore whether the beneficial impact of battered woman syndrome testimony was dependent upon the particular defendant’s degree of fit with the “passive” concept of battered women. It also examined the extent to which the testimony allowed the jurors to view the woman’s actions as reasonable and consistent with the legal requirements of self-defense. Two hundred participants in the study were presented with a model of an actual case involving a battered woman that had killed her abuser. Within the trial, the three variables of interest--expert testimony, the defendant’s response history, and nullification instructions--were manipulated to produce eight different versions of the trial. Results on the manipulation check indicated that not only was the woman portrayed in the active response condition viewed as more active in her response to her husband’s treatment than the woman portrayed in the passive response condition, her response history was also characterized as extremely active. Participants judged the woman portrayed in the active response condition differently than the woman whose response history was characterized by greater passivity. Participants were less sympathetic to her case than her more passive counterpart, less likely to believe her claim of fear/threat, and more likely to believe she had other options. The verdicts rendered in this condition were harsher for the defendant compared to the passive response condition. This difference was evidenced by more murder verdicts when the nullification instruction was absent and more manslaughter and fewer self-defense verdicts when the nullification instruction was present. These findings indicate there is some cause of concern that battered women that have fought back or behaved aggressively towards their abusers’ violence will have difficulties convincing a jury that their actions were committed in self-defense. In terms of the impact of the expert testimony, battered woman syndrome evidence was no less effective for the woman in the active response condition. 2 figures, 2 tables, 2 footnotes, 43 references