BATTERED WOMAN SYNDROME

The requirements for self-defense include the repression of only present or imminent use of unlawful force and the reasonability of the means to repress that force. The person resorting to self-defense may not have been the aggressor. However, if he was a non-deadly aggressor he may defend himself in case of deadly force, or if he completely withdrew after his initial aggression. This reflects a very male centered conception of defense and violence.

So, in some common law jurisdictions, courts tend to extend the benefits of the self-defense to cases which fall within the battered spouse syndrome. In these cases, when a –married or unmarried- woman kills her partner after being physically abused or to prevent another attack the battered spouse may avail herself of the benefits of self-defense even if the killing in self defense is not the consequence of an imminent peril. In these circumstances, the courts have tended to relax some of the requirements of self-defense.

In order to avail herself of this defense, a woman who kills or attacks her abusive spouse or partner must prove that she has been through the battered woman cycle at least one. This cycle includes the tension-building phase, followed by the explosion or acute battering incident, culminating in a contrition phase - often referred to –rather disgustedly- as the honeymoon phase. Additionally, she must prove –usually through expert opinion- that consequently she has experienced learned helplessness and that she suffers from a series of symptoms through which the syndrome can be diagnosed. These requirements make the defense quite narrow as they exclude those women that opt to defend themselves without experiencing the whole syndrome cycle or -even worse- they impose the burden of being assaulted and reconciled in order to be able to use this defense.