Battered Woman Syndrome, Diminished Responsibility and Women Who Kill: Insights from Scottish Case Law

McPherson, Rachel

doi:10.1177/0022018319858506

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In only one case, where the female accused pled guilty to culpable homicide (Hinshelwood), was responsibility for the female's offending located with the male co-accused (Crispin), yet in this case there is evidence of the historical tendency towards pathologising women who kill (McPherson, 2019;Nicolson, 1995):…”

Section: Construction Of Women As the Facilitators Of Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Women accused of killing with others: Experiences of the Scottish criminal justice system

McPherson

2022

Howard J Crime Justice

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This article examines homicide cases in which women have been accused of killing alongside another person or persons -an area which until now has not been examined in a Scottish context. The findings presented demonstrate that being accused of killing with another person or persons can have particularly adverse effects for women: claims of domestic abuse are more likely to be rejected and ultimately, existing tendencies to construct women as deviant within the criminal justice system will be exacerbated, resulting in more severe punishment when they are convicted under the doctrine of art and part liability. It is concluded that closer attention must be paid to the criminalisation of women who are accused of offending alongside another person or persons, particularly in Scotland where less attention has been paid to how doctrines of derivative liability operate in practice.

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Section: Construction Of Women As the Facilitators Of Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Women accused of killing with others: Experiences of the Scottish criminal justice system

McPherson

2022

Howard J Crime Justice

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“…During the original trial, evidence had been led from a psychologist who noted that the accused had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and learned helplessness-essentially that Kim Galbraith had been suffering from BWS. Since then, the syndrome was not subjected to legal scrutiny until the case of Graham when the Appeal Court has replaced the language of BWS with the terminology of 'Battered Person's Syndrome' (BPS) and suggested that, moving forward, the language of BWS/BPS will be replaced with the more general terminology of post-traumatic stress disorder (a small but arguably positive development given the longstanding criticism of BWS (McPherson, 2019).…”

Section: The Response To Women Who Killed Their Abusersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legal change and legal inertia: understanding and contextualising Scottish cases in which women kill their abusers

McPherson

2021

Journal of Gender-Based Violence

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Significant legal and policy change related to domestic abuse has been evident in Scotland over the last 40 years. Despite this, no change has occurred in relation to cases in which women kill their abusers. This article maps the significant changes which have occurred in Scotland in relation to domestic abuse, linking these to the development of the Scottish women’s movement and related feminist activism. This landscape is contrasted with the inertia which has become apparent in relation to cases in which women kill their abusers. A detailed examination of the Scottish landscape is presented which includes in-depth qualitative analysis of 62 cases of this type.Although the problems inherent to effecting change for women who kill their abusers are recognised, this article proposes several practical changes which could be implemented to bridge the knowledge gap which has emerged in Scotland. This call to action comes at the time when the Scottish Law Commission are considering homicide and defences to murder, making it a crucial time to consider the Scottish landscape in relation to this aspect of domestic abuse.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>There exists demarcation in Scotland between responses to domestic abuse generally and responses to cases in which women kill following domestic abuse.</li><br /><li>The issue of women killing their abusers must be included in formal policy dialogues surrounding domestic abuse.</li><br /><li>Any legal changes implemented must recognise the reality of cases of this type.</li></ul>

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“…Battered Woman Syndrome has been used to support defences of diminished responsibility in Scotland, which reduce murder to manslaughter if successful. McPherson (2020) argues the problem with Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) is that it pathologises women, potentially making them less sympathetic to juries. The connection between helplessness and taking the extreme action of killing someone is difficult to reconcile.…”

Section: Women Who Killmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The connection between helplessness and taking the extreme action of killing someone is difficult to reconcile. In Scotland, there is a move to present evidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder instead (McPherson, 2020). Ho and Chantagul (2017) conducted a public opinion survey about women who kill abusive partners in Thailand.…”

Section: Women Who Killmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpersonal Violence

Seal

2021

Gender, Crime and Justice

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Violence takes many forms. It can be the infliction of physical pain and injury by one person towards another, but it also encompasses other harms-the violence of living in poverty or of being subjected to hate speech, for example. This chapter focuses on interpersonal violence between individuals, excluding sexual violence, which is discussed in Chapter 3. Interpersonal violence is not separate from other forms of violence. It is interrelated with state violence, which includes violence associated with law enforcement and immigration restriction, and structural violence, which refers to the harms of social inequality and the maldistribution of resources.Violence is central to securing political domination and to the maintenance of social hierarchies of race, gender, sexuality, class and nation (Collins, 2017). While acts of violence can be largescale and spectacular, violence is frequently embedded in the routine and everyday. Collins (1998Collins ( , 2017 analyses how different types of violence sustain social hierarchies in ways that are mutually supporting and constitutive. Racial dominance in the United States relies on spectacular, public violent events such as lynching and police brutality. It also relies on the routine violence of racist speech and the structural violence of discrimination

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Battered Woman Syndrome, Diminished Responsibility and Women Who Kill: Insights from Scottish Case Law

Cited by 6 publications

References 3 publications

Women accused of killing with others: Experiences of the Scottish criminal justice system

Women accused of killing with others: Experiences of the Scottish criminal justice system

Legal change and legal inertia: understanding and contextualising Scottish cases in which women kill their abusers

Interpersonal Violence

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