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Reputation and Behavior of Battered Women Who Kill Their Partners: Do These Variables Negate Self-Defense?

NCJ Number
164441
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1996) Pages: 251-267
Author(s)
D R Follingstad; M J Brondino; K J Kleinfelter
Date Published
1996
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Attitudes toward battered women who murdered their husbands and the influence on these attitudes of the woman's social desirability and previous verbal behavior were studied using a sample of 413 college students.
Abstract
The students read vignettes in which a battered woman killed her husband. The vignettes varied with respect to the presence or absence of verbal aggression toward the husband toward the final beating, the woman's reputation and social desirability as a wife and mother, and whether or not a weapon was present when the husband threatened the woman before she killed him. The participants selected a verdict; reported the factors that influenced their verdicts; and completed attitudinal measures on sex-role attitudes, attitudes toward wife beating, and attitudes regarding a just world. Results revealed that the presence of verbal aggression by the woman increased the chance of a guilty verdict by 1.71 times compared to the absence of verbal aggression. A defendant characterized as a bad wife and mother or a dysfunctional wife and mother was 6.24 and 2.49 times more likely, respectively, to be found guilty rather than not guilty by reason of self-defense than a good wife and mother. The husband's use of a weapon did not significantly increase the acquittals due to self-defense. Participants' attitudes and demographic characteristics did not appear to relate to their choice of verdicts. Tables and 30 references (Author abstract modified)