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Domestic Violence
Each year, many battered women kill their husbands after years of abuse and violence. Murder, obviously, is against the law, making the actions of these women an offense. The killing abusive husbands forces society to reconcile the desperation of these women with a need to respect and maintain the law. Such reconciliation can involve the use of self-defense as a legal tactic, reduced sentences, and potentially charging women with a crime other than murder.
Over 1.5 million women seek medical intervention in the U.S. As the result of assault by their male partners. There are many others who never seek such treatment. Such abuse, over time, can ultimately drive a small minority of these women to commit murder (Brown).
The legal system largely reacts by sentencing these women to jail, out of adherence to the law's strong prohibition against murder. At the same time, society, in the interest of justice, demands that the history of violence in these situations be considered.
Self-defense is one of the most common defenses used by women who kill their abusive partners (Ludsin). Here, the law provides at least a limited means to reconcile respect for the law with the desperation of victims who kill their abusers. At the same...
If the legal system did not prosecute women who kill their abusers, it would largely be negating its responsibility to uphold the law against murder. At the same time, an unaltered prosecution women who kill their abusers clearly fails to take into consideration the unique aspects of the case. A situation where women who kill their abusers receive reduced sentences is one way to reconcile such differences. Another way to reconcile these differences may be to try such women for a crime other than murder, perhaps by creating a lesser crime such as domestic abuse murders, where sentences are less harsh.
Balancing respect for cultural differences about domestic violence with the North American view against family violence is often problematic. Completely respecting cultural differences on this issue ignores the issue of individual rights, while simply ignoring cultural differences is a great cultural imposition. Successful reconciliation may involve education about basic individual rights, while…
References
Browne, Angela. 1989. When Battered Women Kill. Free Press.
Leonard, Guy. 2003. Cultural differences pose challenge to combating domestic violence. Gazette.Net, 2003. 09 July 2004. http://www.gazette.net/200349/princegeorgescty/county/190935-1.html
Ludsin, H. (2003a). Legal Defenses for Battered Women Who Kill Their Abusers: Discussion Document 1. Johannesburg: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 09 July 2004. http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
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