Battered Women Syndrome

The law review "Understanding Women's Response to Domestic Violence: A Redefinition of Battered Woman Syndrome" described the complexity of domestic violence and women's responses to it. There are many issues to discuss in relation to domestic violence and profiling its victims and perpetrators, but I want to focus on the Battered Woman Syndrome in context of the legal system. The above mentioned article was published in 1993. Since then there have been some changes in the use of the term "Battered Woman Syndrome" by expert witnesses, although some judges still insist on the term being used. (www.freebatteredwomen.org Dec. 2002)

Battered Woman Syndrome was used as a defense strategy in cases where an abused person, usually a woman, had abused or killed her abuser. This defense was a difficult one to hold onto because it is kind of slippery in nature. For example, Battered Woman Syndrome is said to be a kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, there are very specific criteria in order to have this diagnoses. A person with PTSD has to have reacted a certain way psychologically in relation to violence. When you apply this single factor to domestic violence and a woman who has been battered, she may have reacted in a variety of ways to her violence and they may not all fit into the PTSD analyses. For example, some victims of domestic violence go into a depression, have low self esteem, withdraw socially, and have a variety of other psychological reactions which are consistent with PTSD. However, other victims of domestic violence may mask these symptoms or not even have them in an effort to perhaps deny that they are victims, and some even have amnesia about the violence.

As you can imagine, due to the wide array of psychological responses victims of domestic violence may have, it may be impossible to categorize them as having PTSD, which is necessary under the law, and then to use the Battered Woman Syndrome defense. Because of this, some expert witnesses are not using the term in their expert testimony.

It is still a commonly used phrase even in court settings, and amongst the general public. Unfortunately, the phrase still has negative connotations of women who defend themselves against their perpetrators and become the perpetrator themselves. Hence, they have to use defenses of being victimized.

Michelle Mitton