Sin by silence: domestic violence and complicity

Sin by Silence

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing," Sergei Bondarchuk's narrator declares in the film "War and Peace." To explicate, all it takes for evil, evil at any level -- political evil, economic evil, socio-cultural evil -- to metastasize is for good men and women to be silent in the face of abuse. No organization knows the veracity of this maxim more so than Convicted Women Against Abuse (CWAA), an organization dedicated to, among many things, helping women who are victims of domestic violence. Olivia Klaus 2009 documentary film, Sin by Silence gives the viewer an insightful and compelling look into the women of the CWAA. It is the purpose of this paper to examine how the CWAA and the women of the CWAA work toward thwarting domestic violence as portrayed in the documentary Sin by Silence.

The first thing one should know about the CWAA is that the women who comprise it are convicted criminals. That is, they have been convicted of killing and/or severely injuring their abuser. For example, Brenda Clubine the founder of the CWAA, who is interviewed throughout Sin by Silence, spent 26 years in prison for murdering her husband, an unrepentant wife-beater. One night, while he was drunk and on the cusp of beating her, she picked up an empty wine bottle and smashed it over his head, killing him. She contends she only meant to maim him so she could escape another beating. Unfortunately for her, he died from the blow and she was subsequently convicted of second-degree murder. As mentioned, she spent 26 years behind bars.

The question of why she spent so long in prison for what seems like an act of self-defense is a complicated question, one that is only partly addressed in the documentary. Sin by Silence posits that the reason that Clubine spent 26 years in a California state prison is because she was sentenced at a time before Battered Women's Syndrome was legally recognized in California courts (Clubine). She was sentenced in 1984, it was, as stated on the Sin By Silence fact sheet, in 1992, that "Battered Women's Syndrome became legally defined to recognize, and mandatory for use in, the cases of battered women, to help explain to a jury the possibilities that might lead to their crime and circumstances" (Clubine). This legislation was a direct result of the efforts of the CWAA.

For clarity, Battered Women's Syndrome can be defined loosely "as a behavioral condition applied to systematically abused women who, in the face of imminent danger, kill their abusers in self-defense" (Hastings, 1993). In Sin by Silence Clubine and the other women all claim to have had symptoms of BWS prior to their attack on their abusers. Without getting into the nuanced definitions and psychological jargon, one could assume that these women are indeed telling the truth about their experience and did in fact have BWS. Sin by Silence makes no real attempt to suggest otherwise or to reflect critically on some of the skepticism that is out there regarding some of the women who claim to have suffered from BWS. For example, Clubine's case was not so clear-cut. Former Gov. Pete Wilson, who had denied her clemency for her crime, said that Clubine had "repeatedly lied to the police, the court, the media and the board" about her husband's murder, and even her own background (Hastings, 1993).

One brings this up not to disparage battered women showcased in this wonderfully powerful documentary or Clubine herself, rather one brings this up to show how there are two sides to every story. Despite several facts peppered in by Dr. Elizabeth Leonard, such as statistics regarding separation assault, i.e., the fact that when an abused woman leaves her abuser, the chances that she gets murdered goes up 75%, Sin by Silence relies largely on pathos to make its appeal to the viewer. The heart-rending stories of the abused women Clubine, Rosemaire, LaVena are not easy to dismiss. The viewer's emotions and sympathetic impulses kick in and the viewer sees these women largely as victims, not as perpetrators of violence.

Yet that doesn't change the fact that these women are perpetrators of violence. There is no justification for violence even in the face of exigent circumstances such as spousal abuse, which is why many of these women are sent to prison for their retaliation against their husbands, lovers, etc. There is a caveat to this general rule, one could contend that in a killed or be killed scenario, all bets are off. But what exactly is a killed or be killed scenario? In theory it's easy to define, but in reality with an immeasurable number of variables it becomes increasingly difficult to discern: "Was he really going to kill her?" "He had only hit her in the past," etc. Consequently, one must resist the temptation to frame the discussion in terms of "killed or be killed" and look to examine the discussion from an almost absolute position of "violence is not the answer." All of this really speaks to the cyclical to phenomenon that violence begets more violence. A cycle that women of the CWAA openly acknowledge must end.

Throughout the documentary one hears the women recant their actions, "If I only knew what I know now," Clubine says. Bandied about in the meetings is the extreme importance of education and awareness about domestic violence. And the women of the CWAA are absolutely right about this, the answer to domestic violence is education, improved awareness, and non-violent retaliation. This is where Sin by Silence is at its best. While the personal stories are a great way to engage the viewer, it's the message that is being articulated by the documentary, and the women of the CWAA, that makes this an impactful treatise on domestic violence. The message being articulated is really twofold. On one hand the film is suggesting silence in the face of abuse is wrong and, on the other, the best and most efficient ways to stop domestic violence is through educating women about domestic violence, improving awareness about this issue both politically (ensuring legislation is sensitive to the realities of domestic violence) and socially (it's critical that other abused women know they're not alone), and retaliating to domestic violence through non-violent means (reporting to authorities and documenting every incident of abuse).

Overall, Sin by Silence is a powerful but brief expose on the subject of domestic violence. The documentary itself only runs approximately 45 minutes, which is a relatively short amount of time. Consequently, Sin by Silence does not feel like a self-contained work that delves thoroughly enough into its subject matter. As already explained, it does do a great job of highlighting the women of the CWAA and providing at least a cursory introduction to main factors in play, but it doesn't really investigate the other side of the story. It is fairly one-sided. These women are abused, they heroically and violently fought back, they were arrested and convicted, the banded together in prison to promote awareness about their cause and lobby for legislation that reflects their interests (vis a vis BWS), etc., but it doesn't personally investigate each woman's case. It doesn't examine court documents, police reports, testimonies to show if there's any ambiguity or uncertainty about their specific cases that overshadows or undermines their credibility.