Finding their voices

The few studies that exist on battered women who have killed focus on what psychologists, attorneys, and academics have to say about their conduct. To date, there has been no study of how the women perceive themselves and their actions, and how they feel about the labels that have been applied to them. The voices of women who have killed their abusers must be brought into this debate. The life stories of these women can inform the theory used to describe them, illuminating disjunctions between the battered woman syndrome and their own explanations for their actions. By revealing the social and legal constraints that have shaped the women's behavior, these stories indicate factors that society and the criminal justice system should consider when pronouncing judgment on battered women and their "crimes." In examining the stories of four of these women, a theory emerges that contradicts the passive, helpless implications of the syndrome theory and portrays these women, correctly, as survivors of life-threatening circumstances. Viewed in this light, these women's "crimes" may be considered within the realm of justified self-defense.