Battered Woman Syndrome

1. Battered Woman Syndrome Ibn-Tamas v. United States 471 F.2d 923 (1973)

2. The Facts • Marriage characterized by recurring violent episodes • Mr. Ibn –Tamas shot by defendant after 4 years of marriage * conflicting testimony about the day of the shooting Trial Court Finding • Victim was ambushed and shot due to fear of losing home, impatience, and financial gain • Testimony on BWS inadmissible

3. The Defense: BWS • Dr. Lenore Walker offered as a defense expert on the subject of “battered women” • Described phenomenon of “wife battering” • Offered opinion on the analogizing her patients with the defendant • Psychosocial factors of battered women • Low self-esteem, depression, maladaptive attributional style • Learned helplessness

4. Why does BWS matter? • Dr. Walker’s testimony would have served two basic functions • General credibility of the nature of the marriage • Strengthening a self-defense argument and reasonableness of the actions taken • Testimony rejected on three grounds • Goes beyond those acts which the jury is entitled to hear about • Invades the province of the jury • Unnecessarily describes victim as a batterer, which is not at issue here

5. The Appeal • “Because Dr. Walker’s testimony was central to the defense theory of the case, we cannot conclude that the…exclusion of the testimony…was harmless.” • Dyas test for admissibility: • Beyond the natural understanding of the average layman • Expertise of witness • “State of the pertinent art or science” allows a reasonable opinion to be asserted by an expert

6. Applying the Dyas Test • “Beyond the average layman” test is met because of goals served by testimony • Dr. Walker’s expertise is a matter of fact—remanded • The concept of the battered woman—sufficiently developed? • BWS construct vs. methodology

7. Rejected again • “As Frye soundly requires, more needs to be known by the court initially in the specific area of the science before its admissibility will be warranted.” • Mixed reception of BWS in clinical circles • Difficult to reliably diagnose • Never validated as a bona fide condition • Growing use of BWS in courts • Violence Against Women Act of 1994 • Recognized domestic violence as serious crime • Called for report on the medical and psychological bases of BWS • Emphasized that there is no “battered woman’s defense”

8. The Battered Woman Syndrome Study • Goals: • To identify variables which would assist in understanding battered women • To test two theories specific to understanding the violence: • Learned helplessness • The Walker cycle theory of violence

9. Methods • 403 women interviewed • Self-identified • Taken from six-state region, mostly from Denver metropolitan area • Recruited using referral sources (shelters, human service agencies, hospitals, and private practitioners) and direct advertising • Screened by project’s definition of battering • Definitions • “A battered woman is a woman, 18 years of age or over, who is or has been in an intimate relationship with a man who repeatedly subjects or subjected her to forceful physical and/or psychological abuse.” • What do we mean by “intimate,” “repeatedly,” and “abuse?”

10. Methods (cont.) • No control group • Some comparisons were possible through the use of published norms • “each woman served as her own control” for identical questions asked about battering and nonbattering relationships • Small incentive to participate • Questionnaire • Developed specifically for this study • 200 pages • Open- and closed-ended questions • Standardized scales for psychosocial factors (depression, attributional style, and perceived attitudes towards women) • Novel questions developed for numerous variables of interest

11. Results • Support found for both learned helplessness and the Walker Cycle theory of violence • Women’s behavior in battering relationships varies directly with what they perceive will be effective in minimizing injuries and staying alive • Battered women tended to be more depressed, to have maladaptive attributional styles (learned helplessness), and lower self-esteem than comparative norms indicated • No significant differences across racial or socioeconomic lines

12. Limitations • Non-randomized, self-selected sample (thought size made up for this) • No control group (comparison norms often not available) • Definition of the battered woman • Homogenization of extent and nature of abuse • Differences in experience not controlled for in data analysis • Low external validity • Limited racial and geographic diversity • Fatigue issues • Interviewer bias and reliability issues • Small pilot group (n = 20) for new scales in questionnaire • Quality of self-report data (behavioral response styles of battered women) • Doesn’t specify what constitutes a “pattern,” a “distinct syndrome,” a “tendency,” etc. (especially difficult without control group)

13. The “Rotten Social Background” Defense United States v. Alexander and Murdock 471 F.2d 923 (D.C.Cir.1972)

14. Facts • Alexander and Murdock, both African-American males, at restaurant when five white male Marine lieutenants and a woman friend entered • The two groups exchanged stares. Alexander verbally challenged the marines, one of whom responded with a racial epithet. • Alexander and Murdock drew guns and began shooting, killing two and wounding two others. • Murdock raised the insanity defense, but was convicted of second-degree murder. Alexander found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon.

15. The RSB Defense • Murdock argues: The environment in which he was raised—his “rotten social background”—conditioned him to respond to certain stimuli in a manner most of us would consider inappropriate • Because of this conditioning, he was denied any meaningful choice when the racial insult triggered the explosion • Asked jury to liken his RSB resulted in the same kind of behavioral control impairment to that experienced by a paranoid schizophrenic or one suffering from a similar diagnosable condition • Asked jury to consider degrees of insanity, and degrees of responsibility, and on that basis reduce the degree of defense • Rejected in Stewart v. United States

16. District Court • Psychiatrist testified that Murdock suffered from impaired behavioral controls rooted in his RSB, but refused to label him insane • Second psychiatrist attempts to label Murdock as “paranoid with sociopathic trends” • judge refuses to admit the testimony, “on the ground that in the absence of underlying factual data, the jury could properly give it no weight whatever.” • Trial judge’s instructions: “We are not concerned with a question of whether or not a man had a rotten social background. We are concerned with the question of his criminal responsibility. That is to say, whether he had an abnormal condition of the mind that affected his emotional and behavioral processes at the time of the offense.” • Jury found Murdock sane and sentenced him to twenty years to life.

17. The Evidence • Psychiatrist offered opinion based on battery of psychological tests • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; Bender-Gestalt Test; Thematic Apperception Test; MMPI; Rotter Incomplete Sentences Test • Found that Murdock was alienated and sullen, with “paranoid and sociopathic trends almost ingrained and severe enough to be diagnosed as a character disorder” • Judge dismisses this kind of evidence as a matter of opinion

18. The Appeal (Bazelon) • When the trial judge concluded that the testimony was inadmissible, he should have granted Murdock’s motion for a mistrial, and ordered a new mental examination, by experts capable of explaining their conclusions to a court • The defense’s failure to prepare the witness adequately or pursue the examination further may have deprived the defendant of the essence of a substantial defense, giving Murdock grounds for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel • Murdock was entitled to rely on the government to provide a legally adequate examination

19. Evaluating the RSB Defense • An exculpatory mental illness need not be reflected in some organic or pathological condition • “mental illness…includes any abnormal condition of the mind that substantially affects mental or emotional processes and substantially impairs behavior controls.” • The trial judge erred in instructing the jury to disregard the testimony about Murdock’s social and economic background • The testimony may have persuaded the jury that the defendant’s behavioral controls were so impaired as to require acquittal, even though the impairment might not render him clinically insane • Psychiatrist for prosecution counters

20. Evaluating the RSB Defense (cont.) • Even if we were to consider the defense, the community must still decide what to do with Murdock • Four “unattractive options”: • Narrow limitations on the diminished responsibility defense • Expand the defense to include defendants like Murdock • Hospitalization • Confine the defendant exclusively on a prediction of dangerousness • Bazelon not prepared to abandon the “disease” model • Provides a rationale for detaining dangerous persons following acquittal • Convictions and sentences affirmed

21. Bazelon’s Moral Journey • “We sacrifice a great deal by discouraging Murdock’s responsibility defense. If we could remove the practical impediments to the free flow of information we might begin to learn something about the causes of crime. We might discover, for example, that there is a significant causal relationship between violent criminal behavior and a “rotten social background.” • Acknowledges the likely role of mediating and moderating factors: • Income redistribution and social reconstruction are indispensable first steps toward solving the problem of violent crime • “Law’s aims must be achieved by a moral process cognizant of the realities of social injustice…[two conditions of punishment on p. 22]

22. Final Thoughts • RSB defense = “living in a ghetto defense”? • Slippery slope? • Adverse social and subcultural background is statistically more criminogenic than psychosis. • Like insanity, it also severely impairs the freedom of choice • Defense: “One may argue that insanity diminishes the capacity to reject what is wrong and adhere to what is right. So does the ghetto—more so.” • RSB Makeover • “Urban psychosis”: State v. Morgan (no), State v. Taylor (yes) • “Urban Survival Syndrome”: a defensive mind-set prevalent in inner-cities. People v. Boney: “Poor urban areas foster a cycle of violence and despair, and a look, bump or glance leads to extreme violence.”