Battered Woman Syndrome Testimony Essay

It is clear from the above discussion that with Ahluwalia , Courts have only recently considered the probability that battered women can experience anger in the form of a slow burn but it is yet to concede to the fact that these women's perception and reaction to provocation may be different to those previously recognized. Thus, before these women can be treated equally by the law of provocation, we need to begin constructing their legal subjectivity. One way of achieving this in cases involving battered women is to cultivate the use of expert evidence as to the long-term effects of violence. However, for battered women who kill, perhaps the most difficult task is to explain why they stay with such abusive partners and why they eventually kill. The condition of learned
As a result, for women whose experiences differ from this set standard, their responses to their victimization risk are doubted owing to the fact that they fall outside the scope of those typical victims. In fact, syndrome-based testimony can be used to help establish that a particular woman is not a legitimate battered woman. Unless a battered woman’s experience of violence conforms to the pattern detailed within Walker’s cycle theory of violence, or is consistent with learned helplessness, the evidence will essentially be viewed as irrelevant and disregarded by Judges. However, this framework fails to account for the complexity and diversity of victim experiences. As a result, the nature and dynamics of domestic violence is often left obscured and misinterpreted in a Court of law. Despite such shortcomings, expert evidence remains an important tool within the courtroom, the main reason being that the battered woman syndrome terminology supposedly provides a frugal framework under which the experiences and behaviors of battered women may be expediently