When Battered Women Kill

Description

What happens when a marital relationship becomes a struggle for survival between victim and abuser? Why would a wife remain with a husband who assaults her or threatens to take her life? And how do personal, relational, and societal pressures combine with a victim’s fear and despair to explode in lethal violence as a means of self defense? In this always startling, often shocking book, Angela Browne draws upon interviews with 250 physically-abused women—including 42 who made the drastic shift from victim to killer—to explore the day-to-day realities, developing patterns, and tragic consequences of violence in families.When Battered Women Kill gives voice to the women trapped in the maelstrom of conjugal violence. Through their experiences, Browne shows how “romantic” idealism sustains the early stages of abusive relationships—and can actually foster the escalation of aggression against a loved one; how obsessive “love” fuels an abuser’s need to physically dominate; the ways battered women adapt to their tormentors’ behaviors in order to survive another day; and, perhaps most painfully, how children who witness marital violence are more likely to carry on the tragic tradition than those who do not.More than a report on women who kill their abusive partners, Browne brings together her own findings with an up-to-date, thorough examination of other research to form a conclusion with far-reaching psychological and legal implications. Comparing the stories of women who suffered abuse without taking lethal action with those who fatally turned the violence against their mates, she finds that there are few differences between the two groups of women. The difference is in their men. Those who died went one step too far, shattering the limits of violence their victims had come to accept—escalating their tortures or turning their threats against their children, while making escape virtually impossible.A powerful indictment of a criminal justice system that too often neglects or punishes the victims of marital violence, Browne’s masterful work is searing testimony and a compelling call for social change. A vivid portrayal of the horror, sorrow, and desperation of women trapped in life-threatening situations with men they love, When Battered Women Kill is a stunning illustration of how the patterns of traditional romance can become twisted into a devastating spiral of violence.