In the last two decades, most states in the United States have passed laws to protect battered women and to enhance their access to the criminal justice system. Preliminary examinations suggest that the reforms have had a limited success on abused women's use of the law. This study examines the ways in which prosecuting and defense attorneys perceive and describe the dynamics of battering as they play out in court, and presents attorneys' views of prosecuting, defending and adjudicating cases of violence against women. Attorneys' views on the defenses commonly used in court and other issues of concern to reformers of domestic violence laws are also discussed. The study suggests that attorneys' accounts portray the woman-battering cases which reach the justice system as ‘common couple violence’ rather than ‘patriarchal terrorism’. Results indicate that the legal profession, charged with the prosecution and adjudication of domestic violence, resorts to gender stereotypes to excuse, minimize or tolerate violence against women. Similarly, legal professionals evaluate relevant criminal justice policy according to men's views of battering. The implications of the results for combating woman battering through law reform are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BerkR.A.BerkS.F.NewtonP.J.LosekeD.R. (1984). Cops on Call: Summoning the Police to the Scene of Spousal Violence. Law and Society Review, 18, 479–498.
2.
BowkerLee H. (1983). Battered wives, lawyers and district attorneys: An examination of law in action. Journal of Criminal Justice, 11, 403–412.
3.
BrowneA. (1987). When Battered Women Kill. Free Press; New York.
4.
CampbellA. (1993). Men, Women, and Aggression. Basic Books; New York.
5.
CannavaleF. (1976). Witness Cooperation. Lexington; New York.
6.
CorsillesA. (1994). No-Drop Policies in the Prosecution of Domestic Violence Cases: Guarantee to Action or Dangerous Solutions?Fordham Law Review, 63, 853–881.
7.
CritesL.L. (1987). Wife Abuse: The Judicial Record. In Women, the Courts, and Equality, pp. 38–53. Sage; Newbury Park, California.
8.
DavisR.C. (1983). Victim/Witness Noncooperation: A Second Look at a Persistent Phenomenon. Journal of Criminal Justice, 11, 287–299.
Dixon.J, (1995). The Nexus of Sex, Spousal Violence, and the State. Law and Society Review, 29, 339–376.
11.
DobashR.P.DobashR.E.WilsonM. (1992). The Myth of Sexual Symmetry in Marital Violence. Social Problems, 39, 71–91.
12.
DobashR.P.DobashR.E.CavanaghK.LewisR. (1998). Separate and Intersecting Realities: A comparison of men's and women's accountsof violence against women. Violence against Women, 4, 382–414.
13.
ErezE.BelknapJ. (1998a). Battered Women and the Criminal Justice System: The Perspectives of Service Providers. European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research, 6, 37–87.
14.
ErezE.BelknapJ. (1998b). In Their Own Words: Battered Women's Assessment of System's Responses. Violence and Victims, 13, 3–20.
15.
ErezE.KesslerD. (1997). The criminal justice response to domestic violence in Ohio. A report submitted to the Office of Criminal Justice Services, Columbus, Ohio.
16.
ErezE.LasterK. (1999). Neutralizing Victim Law Reform: Legal Professionals' Views on Victims and Impact Statements. Crime & Delinquency, 45, 530–553.
17.
EwingC.P. (1987). Battered Women Who Kill. Lexington; New York.
18.
FerraroK.J. (1989). Policing Woman Battering. Social Problems, 36, 61–74.
19.
FerraroK.J.BoychuckT. (1992). The Court's Response to Interpersonal Violence: A Comparison of Intimate and Non-intimate Assault Cases. In Domestic Violence: The Changing Criminal Justice Response (BuzawaE.S.BuzawaC.G., eds.) pp. 209–225. Auburn House; kw]Westport, CT.
20.
FordD.A. (1983). Wife Battery and Criminal Justice: A Study of Victim Decision-making. Family Relation, 32, 463–475.
21.
FordD.A. (1991). Prosecution as a Victim Power Resource: A Note on Empowering Women in Violent Conjugal Relationships. Law and Society Review, 25, 313–334.
22.
FordD.A.RegoliM.J. (1992). The Preventative Impacts of Policies for Prosecuting Wife Batterers. In Domestic Violence: The Changing Criminal Justice Response (BuzawaE.S.BuzawaC.G., eds) pp. 181–207. Auburn House; Westport, CT.
23.
FrohmannL. (1996). Hard Cases: Prosecutorial Accounts for Filling Unconvictable Sexual Assault. Current Research on Occupations and Professions, 9, 189–209.
24.
HambergerL.K. (1997). Female Offenders in Domestic Violence: A Look at Actions in Their Context. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 1 (1), 117–129.
25.
HartB. (1993). Battered Women and the Criminal Justice System. American Behavioral Scientist, 83, 73–119.
26.
HiltonN.Z. (1991). Mediating Wife Assault: Battered Women and the New Family. Canadian Journal of Family Law, 9, 29–53.
27.
JohnsonM.P. (1995). Patriarchal Terrorism and Common Couple Violence: Two Forms of Violence Against Women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 283–294.
28.
JonesA. (1994). Next Time She'll be Dead: Battering and How to Stop it. Beacon Press; Boston.
29.
KurzD. (1993). Social Science Perspectives on Wife Abuse: Current Debates and Future Directions. In Violence Against Women: The Bloody Footprints (BartP.B.MoranE.G., eds.) pp. 252–269. Sage Publications; Newbury Park, California.
30.
LanganP.A.InnesC.A. (1986). Preventing Domestic Violence Against Women. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Special Report, August, Washington, D.C.
31.
LermanLisa G. (1986). Prosecution of Wife Beaters: Institutional Obstacles and Innovations. Violence in the Home: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (LystadM., ed.) pp. 250–295. Branner/Maze; New York.
32.
MahoneyM.R. (1991). Legal Images of Battered Women: Redefining the Issue of Separation. Michigan Law Review, 90, 1–94.
33.
MartinM.E. (1994). Mandatory Arrest for Domestic Violence: The Court's Response. Criminal Justice Review, 19, 212–227.
34.
McCannK. (1985). Battered Women and the Law: The Limits of the Legislation. Women in Law: Explorations in Law, Family, and Sexuality (BraphyJ.SmartC., eds.) pp. 71–96. Routledge & Kegan Paul; London.
35.
McLeodM. (1983). Victim noncooperation in the Prosecution of Domestic Assault. Criminology, 2, 395–416.
36.
MillsL.G. (1998). Mandatory Arrest and Prosecution Policies for Domestic Violence: A critical literature review and the case for more research to test victim empowerment approaches. Criminal Justice and behavior, 25, 306–318.
37.
PagelowM. (1997). Battered Women: A Historical Research Review and Some Common Myths. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 1, 97–116.
38.
RebovichD.J. (1996). Prosecution response to Domestic Violence: Results of a survey of Large Jurisdictions. In Do Arrest and Restraining Orders Work? (BuzawaEve S.BuzawaCarl G., eds.) Ch. 10 pp. 176–191. Sage; Thousand Oaks, CA.
39.
SchmidtJ.SteuryE. (1989). Prosecutorial Discretion in Filing Charges in Domestic Violence Cases. Criminology, 27, 487–510.
40.
ShermanL.W. (1992). Policing Domestic Violence: Experiments and Dilemmas. Free Press; New York.
41.
SchwartzM.DekeseredyW. (1993). The Return of the Battered Husband Syndrome Through Typification of Women as Violent. Crime, Law and Social Change, 15, 51–72.
42.
SingerS.I. (1988). The Fear of Reprisal and the Failure of Victims to Report a Personal Crime. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 4, 289–302.
43.
StankoE.A. (1981–1982). The Impact of Victim Assessment on Prosecutors' Screening Decisions: The Case of New York County District Attorney's Office. Law and Society Review, 16, 225–239.
44.
ZimringFranklin E. (1989). Toward a jurisprudence of family violence. Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research, pp. 547–569. The University of Chicago; Chicago, Illinois.
