Mary Ann Dutton's Battered Women Syndrome

After reading Mary Ann Dutton’s piece on Battered Women Syndrome, many things come to mind. She really opens the discussion that Battered Women Syndrome has multiple sides and complexities that should come into play, however often slip through the cracks. Dutton conveys that often times in legal testimonies that there is no further review beyond psychological factors. The main idea that caught my attention is the situational factors that are often not considered in reasoning.

Dutton touches on the concept of social factors. For example, a woman could be financially dependent on a man. Many could say “Well go get a job”. In some cases, a woman may have been brought to the United States from another country (this is known as isolation, a common mechanism used by domestic abusers) and does not know English. She then therefore does not have the resources to get a job to support herself. Without speaking English, she also does not have the ability to know and/or find a shelter, or other help that is available for her.

Another idea is children. Does the couple have children? If they do, many times women find it necessary to stay with their spouse to keep a “better” family. Well, in reality this is only detrimental to the child’s upbringing, as well as the woman’s.

Culture: something often overlooked in our legal system. In many cultures divorces are unheard of and unacceptable. Like Valentine noted about African women, it would be a shameful admittance to other people in their culture (as it would be in many others as well). Valentine also said how some African women were brought up seeing their mothers, friends, and anyone and everyone being battered, why should they believe they deserve any different. After all, it would be a sign of disrespect to believe otherwise.

Perhaps not as big as a deal as the other social contributing factors, Dutton mentioned the concept of social networking. Specifically for abusive couples who are dating, due to social networks, it could become fearful to leave the relationship. Often times, couples share groups friends, family and even co-workers. By splitting up, not only is the victim worried of being hurt even more, she could easily be concerned of losing her support system; her friends.

Mary Ann Dutton’s article really helped open my eyes to the different layers of Battered Women Syndrome. There are many contributing factors that are often overlooked in legal matters, that create an unfair testimony.