Women are subjected to the worst types of violence every day in a nation that guarantees equality and freedom to each and every citizen. These acts of violence occur mostly within the structure of domestic violence relationships. This is due to long standing and deeply penetrating socially accepted double standards that women find themselves forced to live and cope with this brutality. Sometimes, women within domestic violence situations must kill to escape. Yet, when these women are forced to kill to obtain freedom, they find themselves confronting even more victimization from the legal system.
Lenore Walker, a psychologist who researched the violence women and children suffered, wanted to explain the cycles of domestic violence that were outside the normative standard of the mean. She wanted to walk the layperson through the plights and inhumane treatment that some of these women and children suffered and through sympathy, compassion and understanding gather support for their dilemma. Therefore, the idea was to apply the concept of learned helplessness to help educate the publics’ awareness and to dispel stereotyping and myths. The term applied to this defense was the Battered Women’s Syndrome used in cases where a woman kills a male in an attempt to survive. …show more content…
572). The first phase is the ‘tension building’ stage where there is conflict and arguing. This phase involves trying to make the victim think they are crazy through mind games. The second phase is the climatic explosion from the tension building stage. The emotional break is a crisis, which can be dangerous for the victim, law enforcement, family members, friends, and anyone who attempts to intervene in preventing the abuser access, control, manipulation, and possession of their victim. This stage includes severe violence with kicking, beating, choking, and raping. Pets are commonly vulnerable to being hurt or