battering

(36) In homicide cases, the defendant may introduce evidence establishing the nature of the battering relationship to support the conclusion that she reasonably perceived imminent danger requiring the use of deadly force.

Two of the groundbreaking, now classic, texts on battering are Lenore Walker's 1979, The Battered Woman, and Mildred Pagelow's 1981, Woman-Battering: Victims and Their Experiences.

(14) The difficulties a battered woman confronts when attempting to advance this defense have been well articulated in the legal literature and stem largely from two sources: (1) the male-gendered norms of "reasonableness" inherent in the laws of self-defense; (15) and (2) the misconceptions the public (hence jurors) holds regarding battered women and the battering context.

He examines how the church has subtly contributed to the cultural and religious expectation that the victim of battering stay with the batterer.

I had heard of battering, of course, but never lesbian battering.

Thus, the tactics that proved useful in promoting the problem of woman battering also have created new myths and injustices.

In pursuing these questions, the author emphasizes the distinction between an "incident-based" definition of battering (which focuses on discrete episodes of violence that violate criminal laws) and a "control-based" definition (which characterizes battering as a web of coercive tactics, including but not limited to actual physical assault).

Advocates of battered women frequently resort to expert testimony concerning the "battered woman syndrome" to circumvent the imminence and necessity hurdles erected by current self-defense doctrine.(12) Such testimony generally details a three-phase cycle of violence characteristic of battering relationships that regularly produces a consistent pattern of psychological symptoms in battered women, including, most notably, a condition known as "learned helplessness."(13) This expert testimony seeks to justify the battered woman's use of deadly force by addressing both the subjective and objective elements of self-defense.

Now, officers may arrest a battering spouse on probable cause.

Then psychologists and lawyers came up with another possibility: a defense based on the fact that the long-term battering had made the woman so helpless and passive that she saw killing as her only possible escape from the abuse.

Simpson have been linked to battering. Still, neighbors pretend not to hear violent fights, and battered women themselves may minimize the beatings.

I learned that to ``debate'' with someone is to ``batter them down.''I found that to be a rather sobering definition, because I enjoy debating,but I hope that I have never done so with the idea of battering someone else down.

In recent years, many have offered instead testimony described more generally as relating to "battering and its effects." They do so because they recognize that the BWS construct originally formulated by Walker, based on the assumptions that a "cycle of violence" is common to the experiences of battered women and that their common reaction is "learned helplessness," does both too little and too much.

Battering in a relationship will not improve on its own.