Sin by Silence: Domestic Violence and the CWAA Examined

Introduction: Evil Triumphs Through 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 put it plainly, all it takes for evil — political evil, economic evil, socio-cultural evil — to metastasize is for good men and women to remain silent in the face of abuse. No organization knows the truth of this maxim more than Convicted Women Against Abuse (CWAA), an organization dedicated, among other things, to helping women who are victims of domestic violence. Olivia Klaus's 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 its members work toward thwarting domestic violence, as portrayed in the documentary.

The CWAA and the Story of Brenda Clubine

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. Brenda Clubine, the founder of the CWAA and the primary interview subject 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 verge of beating her, she picked up an empty wine bottle and smashed it over his head, killing him. She contends she only meant to incapacitate him in order to escape another beating. Unfortunately, he died from the blow, and she was subsequently convicted of second-degree murder.

The question of why she spent so long in prison for what appears to be an act of self-defense is complicated — and only partly addressed in the documentary. Sin by Silence posits that Clubine's lengthy sentence resulted from the fact that she was convicted before Battered Women's Syndrome was legally recognized in California courts (Clubine). She was sentenced in 1984. According to the Sin by Silence fact sheet, it was not until 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 CWAA's advocacy efforts.

Battered Women's Syndrome: Legal Recognition and Controversy

For clarity, Battered Women's Syndrome (BWS) can be loosely defined "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 experienced symptoms of BWS prior to their attacks on their abusers. Without delving into nuanced psychological definitions, one might reasonably assume that these women are telling the truth about their experiences. However, the documentary makes no real attempt to reflect critically on the skepticism that exists regarding some women who claim to have suffered from BWS.

For example, Clubine's case was not entirely clear-cut. Former Governor Pete Wilson, who denied her clemency, stated 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). This observation is raised not to disparage the women showcased in the documentary, but to illustrate that there are two sides to every story — a dimension the film largely overlooks.

The Documentary's Emotional Appeal and Its Limitations

Despite several facts offered by Dr. Elizabeth Leonard — including the statistic that when an abused woman leaves her abuser, her risk of being murdered increases by 75% — Sin by Silence relies largely on pathos to make its appeal to the viewer. The heart-rending stories of abused women such as Clubine, Rosemarie, and LaVena are not easy to dismiss. The viewer's emotions and sympathetic impulses engage immediately, leading the audience to see these women primarily as victims rather than as perpetrators of violence.

Yet that framing does not erase the fact that these women did commit acts of violence. Sin by Silence does a great job of highlighting the women of the CWAA and providing a cursory introduction to the main issues at play, but it does not genuinely investigate the other side of the story. The film is fairly one-sided: these women were abused, they fought back violently, they were convicted, they banded together in prison to promote awareness and lobby for legislation sensitive to their circumstances — but the documentary does not examine court documents, police reports, or testimonies to determine whether there is any ambiguity or uncertainty in individual cases that might complicate or undermine their credibility.

Conclusion: A Powerful but Incomplete Documentary

Overall, Sin by Silence is a powerful but brief exposé on the subject of domestic violence. The documentary runs approximately 45 minutes — a relatively short runtime — and as a result does not feel like a fully self-contained work that delves thoroughly into its subject matter.

If Sin by Silence were more objective and thorough in its treatment of domestic violence and the CWAA, and less reliant on pathos, it might make for a more complete and convincing documentary. For one thing, the viewer would not be compelled to look outside the film for questions left unanswered — for example, why did Clubine really spend 26 years in prison? She murdered her husband, and she had a motive rooted in abuse, but what are all the facts of the case? Did she lie in her testimony? Why was she repeatedly denied clemency? Did she truly suffer from BWS? On that last point, her own trial attorney, Theodora Poloynis-Engen, admitted that she does not believe Clubine suffered from BWS (Hastings, 1993).

One must ask these questions because BWS is sometimes viewed as an excuse to justify and rationalize violence. In a society that upholds the principle that violence is never the answer, the notion that violence can be permissible under certain conditions is a subversive idea that risks creating a slippery slope toward greater tolerance of violent acts. Sin by Silence does not investigate these broader implications in sufficient depth — though perhaps it does not need to. Its central message is clear enough: silence in the face of domestic abuse is patently wrong, and that message resonates powerfully throughout.

Works Cited

Hastings, D. (10 Oct. 1993). National Spokeswoman for Battered Women: Is She Telling the Truth? Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-10/local/me-44254_1_brenda-clubine-sue-osthoff-murder-trial-testimony

Clubine, Brenda. (n.d.). Convicted Women Against Abuse Fact Sheet. Sin by Silence.com. Retrieved from