Abstract

The battered woman syndrome is defined as an adaptation to the aversive situation characterized by increasing a person's ability to cope with adverse stimuli and to minimize the pain, and cognitive distortions present, such as minimizing, denial or dissociation of the change in the way of seeing themselves, others and the world.

Table of Contents

Abstracti

Battered Woman Syndrome1

Cycle of Abuse Theory1

Cumulative Phase Voltage1

Acute phase Abuse2

Quiet and Reconciliation phase2

Law-Enforcement Issues2

The historical context of policy2

U.S. Law4

Criminal Justice System5

Modern Criminal and Social Justice Issue6

Conclusion7

Works Cited8

Battered Woman Syndrome and Use of Duress in Judith Ann Neelley Case

Battered Woman Syndrome

The battered woman syndrome, defined by Walker and Dutton is defined as an adaptation to the aversive situation characterized by increasing a person's ability to cope with adverse stimuli and to minimize the pain, and cognitive distortions present, such as minimizing, denial or dissociation of the change in the way of seeing themselves, others and the world. They may also develop symptoms of PTSD, depressive feelings, anger, low self-esteem, guilt and resentment, and often have somatic complaints, sexual dysfunction, addictive behaviors and difficulties in their relationships.

Cycle of Abuse Theory

Victimization prevails due to the cycle of violence. Test the theory that abuse is not random or constant, which occurs in cycles rather repetitive, consisting of three phases, which could have a time lag of some months:

Cumulative Phase Voltage

The victim tries to calm her assailant, shows understanding, making reasoning about helping or kept silent to calm down. It goes away without realizing their support group, friends and family. Try to be nice, passive, withdrawn and strives to do things as the aggressor you like or you pleased. The buildup of tension starting to build with certain episodes of verbal abuse and voice rises, they become more frequent, when you move on to the next period.(Alcohol or drugs are always aggravating elements).

Acute phase Abuse

The tension creates a state of uncontrolled rage, with episodes of physical and sexual abuse, usually. The perpetrator abuses his partner, insults, and shouts, sexually assaulted, hit, the humiliation, assaults, and break or destroy property, usually valuable to the victim, threats, etc. The woman feels helpless, is the need to protect themselves from whom she trusted to protect you, you feel terrified, is terribly hurt, pain paralyzes, is completely helpless and not reacts reasonably.

Quiet and Reconciliation phase

Quiet and Reconciliation phase is characterized by the absence of tension or violence, which acquires a positive value. The attacker sees a loss of confidence of the victim, is defeated and hopeless, for fear of losing who feeds the ego, the responsibility for what happened, blames and excuses himself, changes his attitude towards victim, seeking ways to keep him, insists on his innocence and full of hope into believing that everything can go well. There is a period of apparent complacency and consideration, from the perpetrator. The catharsis that had given way to rage out of control, which may have involved police intervention or arrest, becomes docility, remorse and tries to be forgiven, through gifts and considerations until tensions begin to build ...