SOCI 2130 Lecture 10: SOCI2130LectureTen
Document Summary
Battered wife syndrome claims abuse from husband was reason for self defense. Often the claim makes it difficult to decide if murder is done in self defense or not. 19th century courts used to claim insanity. Today we similarly blame women for being too emotional or pmsing, which turned into the battered woman syndrome (is it a real defense) This claim states that women are mentally damaged by domestic abuse (a true fact) Courts look for these reasons to easily avoided looking into male acts of violence and place blame on women (which is wrong) Domestic violence also occurs among children and their parents. Men historically have been allowed, and even encouraged to beat their wives. Ex. men have been permitted to beat wives with a rod no thicker than their thumb . Men often claim that wives deserve the abuse, lead to hurt wives, and/or that they were tired and drinking.
