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Forum
Battered wives syndrome: Is it an acceptable defence in murder trials?
Page 4/6 of selected contributions from the readers of PublicDebate. (most recent first)
All things being equal
Posted: April 16, 2001
By: Rob Williams
To open the gate on Justifiable Homicide is a dangerous precedent. As Justice Kirby says, no civilised country hands out that sort of power to any person.
I would guess that the majority of gender calling for it to be admitted would be female. I would put this to them. If men agreed to have the battered wife syndrome admitted as a defence, would it also be fair to allow a man to kill if he found another cuckolding his wife. Considering the 50% plus walkout by women these days there could be blood running in the streets. If we are to go down any of these paths we are staring in the face of a lawless society.
As supposedly intelligent animals, we have not done too well in the Western World in this regard have we! I have no evidence that it is any better in highly religious countries either. And these comments will get you going.
Don't forget we are still animals. I chaired a meeting recently where 6 of the 8 were women. My comments after the meeting were that they all acted like a mob of fruitcakes. I would rather chair a meeting of men any day, call me what you will, I mean it.
My intellect and self-respect would not allow me to insult them or beat them up. My attitude was rather, "why would I want to let a woman ruin my evening."
Some men don't have my philosophy and obviously no self control either so, may be it is a woman's lot. The problem is, that, generally men hit harder than women and ultimately some men (generally without character in my opinion), would punch another man if he were getting up the others nostril.
So what separates women from that situation in this day and age of equality? Women want to play Rugby, they want to wear pants they want equality; they got it.
A smack in the head sometimes follows. Aboriginal men bashed their wives for centuries and still do. But when white men came here, the Aborigines threw a spear, we shot them with a gun.
200 years is not a long time in the 60,000 they were here. Did I mention we were animals? Maybe it's a woman's lot. All things being equal of course.
Feel the daily humilation
Posted: April 16, 2001
By: Agnes Nemeth
The judicial system needs judges who have their heart open enough to see and feel the daily humiliation, the fear and the helplessness of women such as Heather Osland.
It is a very sad case and the fact that she was convicted 3 against 2 shows that the case was not an easy trial. One thing is sure. Had she been acquitted, many bastard abusers, the bullies of society, would think twice before they would carry on their horrendous psychological and physical bullying over their wives.
Laws that protect the bully and the wrong doer, dead or otherwise, should not be laws for this country! They have ruined Australia in the past 25 years. We need stronger laws that protect the ordinary decent citizen, man or woman!
Equal opportunity abuser
Posted: April 16, 2001
By: Veritas
Domestic violence is an equal opportunity abuser. Study after study has revealed that women are just as likely to be guilty as men, yet for some reason our governments and media focus only on one side of the problem. Let's see a little less man-hating and a bit more equality.
Only female victims recognised
Posted: April 15, 2001
By: Erik the Red
Rosie: I'm very surprised that the police and courts didn’t deal with the “man” you describe, especially as it would appear that there was plenty of evidence of his brutality. Perhaps the Police were fellow Apexians? In my experience the police acted on behalf of my ex without a shred of evidence, costing me heaps in lost self-esteem, public embarrassment and money.
You mention that it was no excuse that the creature you described was abused as a child. Actually, children who are abused often go on to be wife-beaters (although there are exceptions and I'm one of them). There has been a lot of research in this area and current government ads mention children witnessing wife abuse. However, the ads are one-sided as men are often abused too.
Figures from Canada and the US put the figure at about 50/50 for men and women as victims, and I see no reason why Australia should be any different. The system in Australia only recognises female victims though, and men who recognise their superior physical strength find it impossible to fight back, even if they wanted to. It is a very difficult thing to do: not respond when being rained with punches!
Sheer cowardice
Posted: April 15, 2001
By: Julia
It is sheer cowardice for a man to hit a woman because women cannot compete physically on an equal footing. Frankly, I would leave a trail of dust behind me if I feared my Husband in any way, let alone if he raised a hand to me, but having seen abused women that are so belittled and without any esteem whatsoever or in total fear of the threat "I'll kill you and/or the kids if you even think about leaving" (and how many times have you read of the man killing his wife/children when she does leave!)
I can honestly understand why some women do not have the strength to get out of their horrific situation except when she snaps and kills him. If a woman lifts a hand to fight back she would cop it twice as bad in most situations so it often leaves her without any alternative to wound him mortally, therefore not only do I fully endorse a women who kills her husband in self defence I also applaud her for finally finding the strength to do it.
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