Convicted Survivors: The Imprisonment of Battered Women Who Kill

Chapter 11. Conclusion and Policy Implications

Chapter Eleven
Conclusion and Policy Implications Interviews with imprisoned women offer us unique insights into the lives of women convicted for the deaths of abusive men. Their articulate narratives convey fear, fatigue, frustration, and resignation. Their collective voice describes a series of events and interactions that produces in each woman a firm belief that the unavoidable conclusion to the violent relationship is death—hers, his, or both, and perhaps other family members as well. The women whose experiences are featured in this research represent the tragic failure of numerous social systems to address violence against women by present and former husbands, lovers, and boyfriends. In the beginning, women believe in and call upon diverse social systems—systems that, in the end, fail them and their children. Leading up to the homicide event, women undertake numerous tactics , trying to end the violence. Strategies that study participants used in their attempts to escape abuse include: seek the help of family and/or friends; seek counseling from mental health and/or religious practitioners; move out of the home; leave or try to leave the state; hide from the abuser; move his possessions out of the home; consult an attorney; attempt to move into a shelter for battered women; call law enforcement; report abuse to medical professionals; file for legal separation or divorce; get a divorce; obtain a restraining order; press charges, and ask that the man be arrested. These proactive survival strategies reveal the women to have been creative, persistent, and courageous. Unfortunately, their resistance strategies and escape attempts were met with indifference, disbelief, obstruction , and in some cases, active hostility by those from whom aid was needed. Repeatedly, battered women encounter a pattern of gender insensitivity and gender bias in the responses of authorities and institutions. What can be done to reduce the likelihood that other women will experience the same pattern of abuse and the same 115 pathway to prison? While the past three decades have seen improvements in services for victims of domestic violence, findings from this research point to the need for further changes in public policies and attitudes that act upon private lives. Gender The gender-specific nature of violence against female partners calls for policies and approaches that demonstrate awareness and responsiveness to gender dynamics. UNICEF (2000), recommends strategies and interventions that address the “gender dynamics of power, culture and economics” (13). Thus, more women need to be involved at all levels of the criminal justice process. In an attempt to make law enforcement resources more accessible to women, several countries have instituted either all-woman police stations with multidisciplinary female teams (e.g., Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela) or stations with female civilian workers attached (e.g., Malaysia, Spain, Pakistan, and India) who have been trained to respond to the special needs of victim-survivors (UNICEF 2000). Whether a case is one of domestic assault or homicide, battered women are better able to describe their experiences and explain their actions to female investigators, especially when it involves sexual abuse or torture. Many women in the present study found it much too painful to discuss humiliating and traumatic details of sexual maltreatment with male officers, male lawyers, male prosecutors , or male psychiatrists and psychologists, even if men displayed sensitivity and understanding to their plight. Frequently, women perceive that male authorities direct their sympathies toward abusive men rather than to the female victims. Interviewees feel that, in most cases, men who ask them questions do not believe them, are insensitive to the women’s emotional and physical injuries, and blame women for men’s violence. While study participants and their children lived in terror of violent men, they found it nearly impossible to convey to male agents of the criminal justice system the depth of their fear and intimidation. RECOMMENDATIONS Ongoing gender-sensitive, domestic violence education is indicated for all representatives of the criminal justice system. All jurisdic116 Convicted Survivors tions need specially trained units of officers, counselor-advocates, and prosecutors to handle domestic violence cases. These units should be generously staffed with female professionals. Further, the unique dynamics of intimate violence require male and female personnel who are emotionally suited to the assignment. Arrest and Prosecution Mandatory arrest policies continue to generate debate among researchers and practitioners. Critics argue that mandatory arrest policies are inconsistent deterrents to future violence (Schmidt and Sherman 1998) and lead to backlash arrests of women who...