Is There a Legal Defense to Hurting a Woman?

Physical abuse and domestic violence against women is extremely painful and agonizing for an individual who is being subjected to it. In many cases, domestic violence against women only becomes more severe overtime. Abused women may notice that their partners are becoming more aggressive and violent as time progresses. Often, victims of domestic violence will feel trapped. Abused women may feel that there is no safe way to escape their current situation.

A perpetrator will forbid their victim from speaking with anyone about the abuse. They may threaten their victim with extreme brutality and death if they seek help. The offender may also threaten to subject the victim's children to abuse. In situations such as this, a victim of intimate partner abuse may believe that attempting to escape the detrimental relationship will be more harmful then remaining in their current environment. Attempting to leave may put the victim's children at risk for harm.

Therefore, a victim may be convinced that they have no options. In situations such as this, abused women will fear for their lives and for the lives of their children. Domestic violence against women often ends fatally, not only with the death of the victim, but in some cases with the murder of the abuser.

Women who believe that their abuser will subject them to fatal abuse may go to extreme measures in order to protect themselves and their children. Domestic violence against women may result in the premeditated murder of the offender, or the accidental slaying of the abuser. Victims of abuse are not always submissive and compliant.

Sometimes abused women fight back. The wounds that an individual inflicts upon an abuser in self defense may be fatal and can result in the death of the offender. In some cases, abused women will be so convinced that there is no way to escape their abuser that they will plot and carry out the perpetrators murder. In instances such as this, many individuals who have killed their abuser will exercise battered women's syndrome as a legal defense. This psychological condition is used in order to illustrate the victim's mentality throughout their affliction.

This defense will help to explain why a victim did not try to escape their detrimental relationship and why they dud not seek assistance from other individuals. It will also help to answer questions regarding a victim's failure to report abuse and their denial of the domestic violence. If this condition is accepted as a sufficient legal defense, then an individual who is responsible for murder may receive few or no negative repercussions for their actions. However, utilizing this psychological condition as a legal defense has been very controversial because there is no medical evidence that battered women's syndrome is a serious enough medical ailment to justify the victim's actions. In some cases, battered women's syndrome is not considered to be an acceptable legal defense. If you need legal advice and assistance, contact defense lawyers.

However, courts recognize that an individual who is suffering from this condition may use self defense, insanity, or provocation as a legal defense. Although many people recognize battered women's syndrome as a severe psychological condition, and they understand that domestic violence against women results in battered women's syndrome, not all courts believe that it justifies the murder of the abuser.