Type:	Journal Article
Title:	The impact of expert testimony in trials of battered women who kill
Other Titles:	Psychiatry, psychology, and law
Authors:	McKimmie, Blake M Schuller, Regina A Janz, Teresa
Keywords:	Legal issues;Theories of violence;Homicide
Year:	2004
Publisher:	Australian Academic Press : Samford Valley
Citation:	11 (1), 2004
Notes:	This article reports a study of 195 participants who were presented with a criminal homicide trial of a battered woman who had killed her abuser. Within the trial, the expert testimony (battered woman syndrome, social/agency or no expert testimony) was varied. It also outlines the development of and issues with battered woman syndrome evidence and self-defence in United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Participants were recruited from introductory psychology classes from an Australian university and from a Canadian university; they were randomly assigned, separately for men and women, to one of the 3 possible versions of the trial to which they would be listening. Participants from Australia (99) and Canada (96) were more favourable to the woman’s claim of self-defence if they had been provided with expert testimony. The majority (62%) of participants gave a verdict of manslaughter, followed by self-defence (28%) and under 10% gave a murder verdict. Compared with the no-expert control condition, the participants presented with expert testimony (either a form of battered woman syndrome or social/agency) were more lenient in their verdict outcomes. This was also found to be most pronounced for Canadian men. The expert testimony (either form) also resulted in a belief that the woman’s options were more limited. The results found that women were more believing of the woman’s claim. Women found the claim of fear to be more plausible and less likely than men to believe that she intended to kill her husband. Expert testimony had a beneficial impact on the woman’s claim of self-defence with little differences between the 2 forms of testimony (battered woman syndrome and social/agency). However, it was the social/agency testimony and not the battered woman syndrome testimony that led to the more favourable outcome, that is, that viewed the defendant’s fear to be greater, and more supportive of self-defence. Participants also rated the social/agency testimony as more applicable to the defendant than the battered woman syndrome testimony. The legal and theoretical implications are considered since the findings suggest that expert testimony which describes the context and impact of wife abuse, in its social framework context, is associated with positive outcomes for women in battered women’s defence cases.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/12621
ISSN:	1321-8719
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

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