Battered Women's Syndrome and Parole

Paper Summary:

This paper examines battered women syndrome (BWS), women who serve indeterminate life sentences for killing a spouse or intimate partner that was abusing them. It provides a history of BWS, looks at the 'types' of batterings that lead to this syndrome such as physical and sexual and evaluates parole in the state of California by reviewing recent events. It analyzes various cases of women who are eligible for parole, but are not paroled. The paper leans toward the side of battered women who have served their sentences and should be granted parole.

From the Paper:

"There are many elements to Battered Women's Syndrome, which makes the definition of this phenomenon broad and complex. The predominant types of battering that lead to this syndrome are physical, sexual, and psychological battering (NVADV). Battering may include emotional abuse, economic abuse, sexual abuse, using children, threats, using male privilege, intimidation, isolation, and a variety of other behaviors used to maintain fear, intimidation and power. The California Board of Prison Terms defines BWS as a series of common characteristics that appear in women who are physically and/or psychologically abused, over an extended period of time, by a dominant male figure in their lives (BPT). In all cultures, the perpetrators are most commonly the men of the family."

More papers on Battered Women's Syndrome and Parole:

• Essay # 31405 : "The Battered Woman Syndrome and Criminal Law"
• Term Paper # 140078 : "Psychology of Criminal Conduct and Battered Woman Syndrome"
• Essay # 47396 : "Battered Women"

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