Legal History
The battered person syndrome first rose to prominence in the 1970s, when it was used as a legal defense for abused women who murdered their husbands in a pre-meditated fashion. Defense lawyers used the syndrome to explain premeditation as follows: the woman could not leave the relationship due to learned helplessness. Nor could they fight back when actually being attacked. In the face of increasing violence, the woman's belief was that the only way she could protect herself and her children was to eliminate the partner when he was more vulnerable, for example, while sleeping.
In recent years BPS has been questioned as a legal defense on several grounds. First, legal changes in many states now make it possible to admit a history of past abuse into evidence. Second, not all battered women act the same. Third, it pleads pathology when there may in fact be completely rational reasons for the victim's assessment that her life or that of her children were in danger. For example, if life-threatening attacks were preceded by a certain look in the eyes in the past, the woman may have had probable cause for believing that another life-threatening attack was likely to occur. Fourth, it does not provide for the possibility that a person may be abused but have chosen to kill for reasons other than on-going abuse – for example, jealousy or greed. Fifth, it paints survivors of domestic violence exclusively as passive victims rather than resourceful survivors.
Read more about this topic: Battered Person Syndrome
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