Critically evaluate the concept of battered women syndrome in the context of defence to murder

Résumé du document

According to the Cabinet Office paper ?living without fear', published in June 1999, two women per week were killed by a current or former partner. This analysis highlights the fact that the majority of domestic violence are against women. As a result, women experience psychological sequels. In the first part of the document, I will explain the battered woman syndrome in the context of a murder. Then, I will illustrate this by an example and discuss the state of the battered women.

Extraits

[...] It can be applied to children and men as well. This judgement of a New York's court makes this law more gender neutral. Finally, everybody can understand a woman who kills her batterer's husband in a battering. But the syndrome goes further and helps to understand why they stay with their men until they kill them. Many people don't understand that but the “battered woman syndrome” is a real psychological problem and it permits to have better bases for a fairly judgement. [...]

[...] First, after a day of intense beating, the batterer catches his wife and begins choking her. Several times, he threatens to kill her. She manages to get a gun and shoot him. In a case resembling these facts, the wife was found not guilty (Co. v. Fogle 1992). Second, a woman, after years of abuse, retaliates and shoots her batterer while he sleeps. All courts are not in agreement on the admissibility of evidence when a battered woman kills her sleeping batterer. [...]

[...] In a first part, I will explain what the “battered woman syndrome” is and then replace it in the context of defence to murder. Then, I will illustrate this by an example and discuss the state of battered women who killed. I will especially look at the fact that the “battered woman syndrome” is often use as a defence on trial but is it fair to argue that women have a licence to kill and is it gender neutral? 1. [...]

[...] In this part, I will try to define more clearly what the battered woman syndrome is. First, to understand battered woman's syndrome, we must understand how someone becomes a "battered woman". According to Dr Lenore Walker, a battered women is woman who is repeatedly subjected to any forceful or psychological behaviour by a man in order to coerce her to do something he wants her to do without any concern for her rights To be classified as a battered woman, the couple must go through the battering cycle at least twice.” After publishing The Battered Woman in 1979, which introduce the “Cycle Theory of Violence”, Lenore Walker continued to explore the phenomenon of learned helplessness and passivity on the part of battered women and soon came out with The Battered Woman Syndrome in 1984, where she concluded that battered women might experience a "battered woman syndrome". [...]

[...] "If the claimed elements of being 'battered' are the same regardless of the relationship between the parties or their gender then there is no reason to limit admissibility of expert testimony in a 'battered syndrome' case to only women or children" Judge LaBuda said. The defendant in People v. Carl Colberg raised "battered syndrome" as a defence in his trial. On April Mr. Colberg, a retired major with the New York State Police, was confronted by his son, Christopher Colberg. According to Mr. Colberg's defence, the younger Mr. Colberg, who supposedly had a history of alcohol and prescription drug abuse, broke down his parent's bedroom door and moved toward them in an "uncontrollable rage." Carl Colberg shot and killed his son. [...]