Battered Woman Syndrome

Battering relationships often escalate to a point where the battered woman commits homicide. When such homicides occur, attention usually is focused on the final violent encounter; however, Ogle and Jacobs argue, while that act is the last homicidal encounter, it is not the only one. This important study argues that the battering relationship is properly understood as a long-term homicidal process that, if played out to the point that contrition dissipates, is very likely to result in the death of one of the parties. In that context, Ogle and Jacobs posit a social interaction perspective for understanding the situational, cultural, social, and structural forces that work toward maintaining the battering relationship and escalating it to a homicidal end. This book details this theory and explains how to apply it in a trial setting.

Recent estimates indicate that as many as 8.7 million women are beaten in their homes each year. This is an alarming national statistic, but there is hope. This book examines both social work and criminal justice professional's methods of intervention on behalf of battered women escaping from violent relationships. Helping Battered Women fills a major gap in the literature on the subject. The author provides the reader with the most current, comprehensive, empirically-based, and realistic overview of policy and intervention methods of women escaping from violent relationships. This interdisciplinary volume integrates a rich diversity of perspectives by internationally recognized professors and scholars in the fields of social work, clinical psychology, and criminal justice. The authors of each of the individual chapters tackle one of the major social problems of our times--violence against women--in a systematic and sensitive manner. The authors provide a clear and cogent argument for advocacy and social change in battered women's shelters, police precincts, state legislatures, and the nation's criminal courts.

Why are we so reluctant to believe that women can mean to kill? Based on case-studies from the US, UK and Australia, this book looks at the ways in which female killers are constructed in the media, in law and in feminist discourse almost invariably as victims rather than actors in the crimes they commit. Morrissey argues that by denying the possibility of female agency in crimes of torture, rape and murder, feminist theorists are, with the best of intentions, actually denying women the full freedom to be human. Case studies cover among others the battered wife, Pamela Sainsbury, who garrotted her husband as he slept, the serial killer, Aileen Wournos, who killed seven middle-aged men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, Tracey Wiggington, the so-called "lesbian vampire killer", and Karla Homolka who helped her husband kill two teenage girls in St. Catherines Ontario in 1993.

This book provides a comprehensive look at the causes and effects of wife assault and its relationship to criminal justice policy.

Recent estimates indicate that as many as 8.7 million women are beaten in their homes each year. This is an alarming national statistic, but there is hope. This book examines both social work and criminal justice professional's methods of intervention on behalf of battered women escaping from violent relationships. Helping Battered Women fills a major gap in the literature on the subject. The author provides the reader with the most current, comprehensive, empirically-based, and realistic overview of policy and intervention methods of women escaping from violent relationships. This interdisciplinary volume integrates a rich diversity of perspectives by internationally recognized professors and scholars in the fields of social work, clinical psychology, and criminal justice. The authors of each of the individual chapters tackle one of the major social problems of our times--violence against women--in a systematic and sensitive manner. The authors provide a clear and cogent argument for advocacy and social change in battered women's shelters, police precincts, state legislatures, and the nation's criminal courts.

The American court system is making increasing use of sociologists as expert witnesses. From toxic torts to religious cults and brainwashing, sociological knowledge is becoming increasingly more commonplace in the legal arena. This edited volume is a collection of the experiences of sociologists who have appeared as expert witnesses in a variety of court cases. Many of the cases covered in this book revolve around central issues of murder, self-defense, religious cults, battered women, child pornography, environmentalism, and homelessness. This volume is unique in its breadth of topics and contributions.