General Characteristics of Battered Woman Syndrome

According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute of Justice, one in four women in the United States has experienced domestic violence during her lifetime (Battered Woman Syndrome, 2012). This type of abuse can be fatal and detrimental to one’s personal growth. When woman are repeatedly abused, they show different signs, symptoms and general characteristics. These characteristics are defined as Battered Woman Syndrome.

Tanya Mitchell frantically called 911 to report a shooting-a shooting she committed. In an act of self-defense against her abusive husband who, at the time, was threatening to kill her, she did what she had to do to save her own life. From her reports, her husband was not only abusive, but that he gave men in his “motorcycle club” permission to gang rape her-while he watched. Specific example of his sadistic abuse include him telling her they were going to get married while holding her at gunpoint, making her play Russian roulette, and even trying to rip off her nails. Her attorneys were going to use Battered Woman Syndrome (to take her psychological health based off of her abuse) as a factor in the case but were not confident it would

Working with victims of domestic violence can be an extremely rewarding and fulfilling endeavor. One of the most crucial aspects for a paralegal working with victim of domestic violence is adequately engaging in the task of educating oneself to understand the commonalities of such victims and the ordeals that they have been through. Such clients are drastically different from other individuals who have suffered other physical and violent crimes. Understanding the background of someone who has lived through domestic violence is absolutely central to being able to provide adequate and sensitive legal care. Most victims of domestic violence are women (95%) though domestic violence can have an impact on ever age, class, race, ethnic, cultural or religious group (purplerainfoundation, 2012). "In the United States, nearly one in three adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood (American Psychological Association, Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family 1996 Report)" (purplerainfoundation, 2012). These women are often terrified of their partner's temper, apologize when they are abused and often in the most extremely controlling and isolated environment where the abusive partner will control who the partner sees and where the partner goes outside of the home, jealous of outside relationships (purplerainfoundation, 2012). In these abusive relationships the women are hit,

The report responding to section 40507 of the Violence Against Women Act from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services- National Institute of Mental Health determined that:

Many women and men seek intimate relationships in order to fill their emotional needs of security, safety and love. Their journey starts off with their loved ones spoiling them with flattering gifts and emotional words. The love they feel is so wonderful and deep that they believe that nothing can come between them. They are so happy and convinced that they will live happily ever after with the one they love. Unfortunately, the fairytale they have dreamt about was only temporary and soon comes to an end. The love story they have ones longed for turns into a horrible nightmare. The emotional words they were once spoiled with turn into howling screams and name-calling. The flattering gifts turn into physical abuse. This relationship is referred to as domestic violence or intimate partner violence. This happens when a partner or significant other declares power, authority and control over the other partner. To maintain this authority and control, the abusive partner uses emotional, physical or sexual abuse over his victim (Alters 27). Victims will desperately look for an exit out of this relationship, but only to be blocked by numerous walls of the despair, fear and misery. Many people are convinced that victims have the option of leaving, but they are too weak and they choose not to. What many people don 't know is, victims of domestic violence have many reasons preventing them from leaving their abusers. In most cases the outcomes of leaving are

The laws of BDS are kind of confusing. In many states is now recognizable in legislation

Before looking at the use of battered women’s syndrome as a legal defense, it would help to look at the definition of who exactly a battered woman is. In Daniel Saunders’ research of rates of husband and wife violence, he uses the term “battered women” in the broad sense to mean female recipients of any form of physical force that is intended to hurt. Therefore, Battered Women’s Syndrome is the name given to the measurable psychological changes that may occur after prolonged terms of abuse and is considered a subgroup of

In my third article by Lenore Walker discusses Battered Women and the impact caused on them from martial abuse that had led to Battered Women to be diagnosed with PTSD from the level of beatings, and constant abuse they took from their partners over the time of the relationship. Walker discusses five major areas that negatively affected with the women’s coping skills they are manipulation, dissociation, anger, intimacy, and compliance. When she was assessing women of the PTSD like symptoms she had come to notice a few things about the women, that lead to diagnose them with PTSD as the symptoms, as well as what triggered the responses are the same across the board for all those diagnosed with PTSD. She noticed that many of the victims would minimize the trauma or even deny it happened from the very start which is a common coping method that she had pointed out in her article. She also noticed that some of the women would almost go into a sort of trance like state in which they would gaze

The fact is that it is often very difficult for an abuse victim to end the relationship. Victims stay with the batterer for many reasons, including but not limited to economic constraints, child issues, fear, and intimidation. People also assume that as soon as a victim leaves her abuser, she is safe. In reality, abuse victims are in the most danger after the relationship has ended. Another commonly accepted myth is that battering incidents are isolated behaviors. In reality, batterers use a cycle of power and control to keep their partner in the relationship. Abuse rarely happens just once. It can happen often, or only once a year, but most physical violence continues to escalate and happens more often as the relationship

Physical. Every nine seconds a woman is beaten by her spouse (Protection Against Crime, 2002). Seventy-five percent of the victims of intimate murders are female with a total of three to four million women being battered each year by their respective intimate partners (Protection Against Crime, 2002).The victims of domestic abuse by law enforcement officers endure a special kind of torture, that others in that similar situation do not. The victims are most likely to endure the dangers of professionals who are experienced in firearms, knowledge and training of subduing their victims, etc. During these types of events, one might lose the sense of control and order they once had in their lives. Victims of abuse may suffer physical and emotional pain from the ordeals they had to live through, long after their

Women who are chronically battered has been categorized as a subclass of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is composed of the following symptoms: re-living the battering as if it were reoccurring even when it is not, efforts to circumvent the psychological effect of battering by avoiding activities, people, and emotions, hyperarousal or hypervigilance, disrupted interpersonal relationships, body image distortion or other somatic concerns, and sexuality

Women will continue to suffer from domestic violence unless there is some sort of intervention to help them. When dealing with this population, it is essential to create a safe environment where the woman can talk freely about the abuse without any retaliation from the abuser. When someone comes into a therapeutic session, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and care. This in turn will create a sense of hope that a different type of life can be possible. Also, knowing that there is a support system can help the woman begin the process of change. Despite this, the process of leaving the abusive partner is slow (Warshaw, n.d.)

When a woman takes responsibility to leave an abusive relationship, she is still vulnerable and at risk for injury or death. She accepts the fact that her partner will not, or cannot stop their abusive behavior, she decides she will no longer submit to it and begins to start a new life. Abused women are in the greatest danger when they leave their abuser, she may be stalked, threatened, attacked, and even killed. When a woman chooses to file for a retraining or protective order,

The Battered Women Syndrome is a series of characteristics in women who are physically and psychologically abused by an important dominant male in their lives. These women learn helplessness and dependency; sometimes these characteristics originate from childhood. According to Dr. Lenore E. Walker, a woman must experience two cycles, before she can be labeled a “battered woman”. The two cycles are called the “cycle of violence”. This cycle leads to the feeling that the abuse will never stop. It almost becomes natural. Sometimes the relationships will be calm, and the abuser will apologize for what happened. This part is called the “honeymoon cycle”, but at other points in the cycle the tension and

According to statistics found by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Every nine seconds a woman is abused by her husband or intimate partner. At least 1 in every 4 women and 1 in every 9 men have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in their lifetime. Most often the abuser is one of their own family. Domestic violence is a problem that somehow affects every one of us in this room at some time and is actually the leading cause of injury to women -- more than car accidents, muggings and rapes combined.