Emerging images of severely battered women and the criminal justice system

The research literature of the 1970s and 1980s created a rather singular image of the battered woman. This image functioned as a standard to be met by battered women who attributed their own acts of violence or their failures to protect their children to the violence they endured. Three severely battered women, Hedda Nussbaum, Frances McMillian and Damian Pizarro illustrate the real diversity that exists. Each woman coped differently with her fear of her abuser's violence and domination. Nonetheless, the experiences of all three were unified by the intensity of their fear and by the fact that their acts (or failures to act) were so serious that they led to these women's involvement with the criminal justice system. The psychological consequences of extraordinary violence and the criminal justice system responses are discussed specifically, in relation to each case. The woman's social class and race are emphasized as important mediators of the criminal justice system response. In the final, general section, questions are addressed about society's role in idealizing the f d y and in silencing, ignoring, acknowledging, and/or solving the problems of severely battered women in desperately violent families.     

Cognitive therapy with battered women

Violence toward women by their male partners occurs so frequently that it must be considered seriously by every psychotherapist treating women clients. The paper addresses cognitive therapy with women when there has been a history of domestic violence toward them regardless of whether the danger is imminent and regardless of whether they initially identify battering as the presenting problem. Some cognitions which a woman may hold prior to the onset of abuse may contribute to an increased vulnerability once the violence occurs. A second category of cognitions develops through the battering experience itself, including perceptions of severity of abuse, attributions about the cause of the violence, and attributions about the solution to the problem. Working effectively with battered women requires not only an understanding of the dysfunctional cognitions that they may hold, but also a recognition of the dysfunctional cognitions to which therapists ascribe. It is important for a battered woman to accept responsibility for control of a solution to her victimization, not because the responsibility of the cause is hers, but because it represents empowerment over her own life. A third category of cognitions includes the negative psychological effects of violence. It is imperative to keep as the primary goal of intervention that of safety. Although dysfunctional cognitions may be important to alter, it is necessary never to lose sight of the real dangers the battered woman faces.     

Women's emotional responses to the pervasiveness of gender discrimination

In two experiments we found that women exhibited worse psychological well‐being in a context in which gender discrimination was pervasive compared to a context in which is was rare. In Study 1, women who read an essay suggesting that sexism is pervasive reported lower self‐esteem than women who read an essay suggesting that sexism is rare. In Study 2, we examined the effects of the pervasiveness of sexism when women were making an attribution for a single negative outcome. Women who attributed a negative evaluation to pervasive sexism exhibited less positive self‐esteem and affect compared to women who could attribute the negative evaluation to an isolated instance of discrimination or to a non‐sexist, external cause. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The differential importance of weight and body image among college men and women

Among a sample of American college students, body image and the degree of desired weight change were associated with academic self-rankings, with social and psychological well-being, and with the development of eating difficulties. The effects of body image and desired weight change on eating disorders were generally found to be greater for women than for men, and their effects on student self-rankings of academic ability, social, and psychological traits were more pervasive for women than for men. The less attractive a woman perceived herself to be and the more weight she wanted to lose, the greater was her overall sense of academic, social, and psychological impairment. Women who had poor body images and who desired to lose weight were more likely to report eating difficulties.     

The impact of expert testimony on trials of battered women who kill their husbands

Increased attention to family violence is reflected, in part, in the growing number of social scientists who have applied the results of their work in trials of battered women who have killed their husbands. Acting as expert witnesses, these individuals detail their knowledge and offer opinions in order to educate jurors about the social and psychological consequences of abuse within marital relationships. Little is known about the actual impact of expert testimony on jury deliberation in cases involving battered women. Those engaged in studying the interface of psychology and criminal justice have relied primarily on anecdotal evidence which suggests that expert testimony shapes jurors' attitudes and their ultimate decisions. (Ellison & Buckhout, 1981). This article summarizes psychological research on how individuals, including battered women, react to victimization and provides a preliminary theoretical formulation of this problem.     

Battered Women

SUMMARY

This review of research findings on woman battering reveals how research has played a major role in changing social policy and challenging common myths and stereotypes. The earliest literature contained the ideas of a few psychotherapists who viewed woman battering as a rare phenomenon that involved masochistic women and sadistic men, which led to the myth of psychopathology as the mediating factor. Research following the birth of the battered women's movement destroyed this and some subsequent myths. It led to changes in medical practitioners' attitudes toward battered women patients and law enforcement's reaction to battering victims and their abusers. It also revealed important facts about the courts' handling of abusers and their victims and about violent relationships that result in homicide. The myth that children living in violent households are unharmed has been soundly discredited, yet despite these findings, many battered women continue to face serious difficulties when they attempt to divorce their abusers and obtain custody of their children. Other myths have been exposed by researchers on the basis of their findings. However, once ideas gain popular public acceptance, they tend to continue to exert influence. Nevertheless, positive changes have occurred in the entire spectrum of medical, legal, and social services with which battered women must interface. The research findings reviewed here help highlight current needs and suggest future directions.     

Why do battered women stay?: Three decades of research

A review of the domestic violence research was conducted to assess the most salient factors that predict the likelihood of a woman remaining in or leaving an abusive relationship. The research is still in its early stage and no single theory can confidently predict this tendency on the part of battered women. Research that currently appears to provide the best explanations for remaining in an abusive relationship and factors that enable women to end their abuse are summarized.     

Why do battered women stay?: Three decades of research

A review of the domestic violence research was conducted to assess the most salient factors that predict the likelihood of a woman remaining in or leaving an abusive relationship. The research is still in its early stage and no single theory can confidently predict this tendency on the part of battered women. Research that currently appears to provide the best explanations for remaining in an abusive relationship and factors that enable women to end their abuse are summarized.     

Jurors' Decisions in Trials of Battered Women Who Kill: The Role of Prior Beliefs and Expert Testimony1

The present research explored the influence of four factors on mock jurors' decisions in a homicide trial involving a battered woman who killed her abusive husband: (a) jurors' preexisting beliefs about wife abuse, (b) the presence of expert testimony on the battered woman syndrome, (c) jurors' beliefs in a just world, and (d) gender. Mock jurors listened to a trial involving a woman who had killed her abuser, which either contained expert testimony or did not, and then rendered various judgments about the case. Results indicated that those individuals who were more informed about the dynamics of abuse and those exposed to the expert testimony, compared to their respective counterparts, were more believing of the battered woman's account of what occurred. In general, weak believers in a just world were more lenient in their judgments, with verdicts of not guilty being associated with weaker beliefs in a just world than guilty verdicts. Weak believers in a just world also felt that the expert testimony applied more to the defendant than did strong believers. Finally, women who were weak believers in a just world were less likely to hold the defendant responsible for the events and to be more informed about the dynamics of abuse following the experiment.     

Cognitive and coping mechanisms in the interplay between intimate partner violence and depression

This study examined the association between intimate partner violence, maladaptive cognitive schemas, coping, and depression in a sample of 298 battered women. The results indicated that maladaptive cognitive schemas were associated with less use of primary and secondary engagement coping, and higher use of disengagement coping. In particular, cognitive schemas reflecting disconnection and rejection accounted for the association between psychological abuse and percentage of disengagement coping. In addition, disengagement coping partially mediated between cognitive schemas and depressive symptoms. Finally, the role of cognitive schemas as personal constraints that affect the choice of coping and the implications for interventions with victims are discussed.     

Undermining Reasonableness: Expert Testimony in a Case Involving a Battered Woman Who Kills

Student participants  ( N = 316)  viewed a videotaped simulated case involving a woman who had entered a self-defense plea in the shooting death of her abusive husband. As successful claims of self-defense rest on the portrayal of a defendant who has responded reasonably to his/her situation, the implications of various forms of expert testimony in constructing this narrative were examined. Jurors were presented with either expert testimony regarding the battered woman syndrome (BWS), the BWS framed within post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) nomenclature, or a no-expert control condition. As the BWS classification may support a stereotypical victim, the degree to which the defendant fit the stereotype in terms of her access to a social support network (family, friends, employment outside of the home) was varied within the expert testimony conditions to reflect either a high or low degree of stereotype fit. Although jury verdicts failed to differ across expert testimony and stereotype fit conditions, perceptions of her credibility and mental stability did. Although affording jurors a framework from which the defendant's experiences as a battered woman may be acknowledged, this portrayal, as advanced within PTSD nomenclature, endorsed a pathological characterization of the defendant. Implications of this discourse for battered women within the context of self-defense are discussed.     

Shelter workers' perceptions of battered women

Research suggests that battered women vary in their perceptions about battering, and women holding certain causal explanations to external and stable causes are more likely to state that they want to leave the abusive situation than women holding internal and unstable attributions (Frieze, 1979). The present study addressed the impact of battered women's causal explanations for the violence in their lives on shelter workers' perceptions of their clients. The results partially confirmed the hypothesis that shelter workers would react more positively to battered women who attributed their battering to stable and external causes than battered women who attributed their battering to unstable and internal causes. The implications of the findings for counseling battered women are discussed.     

The relative contribution of abuse severity and PTSD severity on the psychiatric and social morbidity of battered women in shelters

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a severe health problem associated with significant distress and impairment in women. The most common psychiatric difficulty in battered women is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, no research to date has investigated the relative impact of the severity of IPV and IPV-related PTSD symptoms on battered women's psychosocial functioning. In a sample of 177 sheltered battered women, PTSD severity was associated with considerable psychiatric morbidity, social maladjustment, and personal and social resource loss. Moreover, PTSD severity mediated the relationship between IPV severity and psychiatric severity and loss of personal and social resources. Results highlight the need for the assessment and treatment of IPV-related PTSD in battered women's shelters.     

罗夏墨迹测验中“装好”与诈病反应的研究与进展

传统观念认为罗夏测验具有投射测验的性质,因此受测者无法在其测验中故意“装好”和诈病。但相关研究发现,受测者的“装好”反应对于罗夏测验结果没有产生实质性的影响,不能改变罗夏测验的基本数据特征和结构汇总性量表;而诈病反应的研究结论不尽相同,受测者有可能造成罗夏测验变量得分的改变,伪装成相应精神病理症状。如果联合使用MMPI和罗夏测验,则可以精确地评估受测者的伪装反应。目前已有的研究存在被试取样单一、研究数量偏少、无法确定临界值等问题。罗夏测验“装好”和诈病反应研究还处于初步阶段,需要继续深入研究并建立专门的“装好”和诈病量表。     

Sociocultural Groundings of Battered Women’s Entrapment in Abusive Marital Relationship in Ghana

While social psychological theorizations have contributed to our understanding of why battered women continue to remain in abusive intimate relationships, its apparent exclusive focus on individual victims’ psychological orientation leaves little conceptual space for discovering the subtle ways by which social and cultural norms shape the stay/leave decisions of victims of spousal violence. Drawing upon discursive psychology, this study explores the sociocultural groundings of stay/leave decisions of battered women in Ghana. Semi-structured focus groups and personal interviews were conducted with 32 participants: 16 victims and 16 perpetrators from rural and urban Ghana. Discursive accounts of participants suggest that post-divorce social stigma, remarriage alternatives, and post-divorce child care, as well as privacy framing of marital abuse function in concert to influence battered women’s entrapment in violent marital relationships. The article argues that, rather than individual psychological orientation, the decision to stay in or leave abusive marital relationships in Ghana is socioculturally and structurally grounded. To understand the highly complex nature of spousal violence, one must always go beyond the person and his or her psychological orientations, and seek the origin of battered women’s entrapment also in the external conditions of life, and in the sociocultural and structural forms of human existence.     

Representation of interpersonal interactions on the Rorschach and level of psychopathology

Recent theoretical formulations emphasize the importance of the quality of interpersonal relationships in personality development and psychopathology and have resulted in the construction of methods for assessing the representation of interpersonal experiences. The Urist Mutuality of Autonomy (MOA) Scale is one of the most frequently used methods for assessing the quality of interpersonal relationships by evaluating interactions portrayed on the Rorschach between people, animals, and/or things. This study of the relationship of the MOA scale to independent assessments of interpersonal relationships and clinical symptoms in a group of seriously disturbed adolescents and young adults recently admitted to a long-term, open, residential treatment facility revealed that the average quality of interactions portrayed on the Rorschach relates significantly to the severity of clinical symptoms and the presence of thought disorder, but not to the quality of interpersonal relations. In addition, the portrayal of at least one intensively malevolent and destructive interaction on the Rorschach is correlated primarily with measures of thought disorder and impaired reality testing, whereas not giving at least one mutual and benevolent interaction response is correlated with impaired capacity for social adaptation (e.g., inappropriate interpersonal behavior and unmodulated affect). The relative failure to give at least one mutual and benevolent response is also correlated with the severity of clinical symptoms. Though the MOA scale was developed to assess object relations, it seems more consistently to assess aspects of psychopathology, such as the severity of clinical symptoms and the extent of thought disorder, and only secondarily the quality of interpersonal relationships.     

Representation of Interpersonal Interactions on the Rorschach and Level of Psychopathology

Recent theoretical formulations emphasize the importance of the quality of interpersonal relationships in personality development and psychopathology and have resulted in the construction of methods for assessing the representation of interpersonal experiences. The Urist Mutuality of Autonomy (MOA) Scale is one of the most frequently used methods for assessing the quality of interpersonal relationships by evaluating interactions portrayed on the Rorschach between people, animals, and/or things. This study of the relationship of the MOA scale to independent assessments of interpersonal relationships and clinical symptoms in a group of seriously disturbed adolescents and young adults recently admitted to a long-term, open, residential treatment facility revealed that the average quality of interactions portrayed on the Rorschach relates significantly to the severity of clinical symptoms and the presence of thought disorder, but not to the quality of interpersonal relations. In addition, the portrayal of at least one intensively malevolent and destructive interaction on the Rorschach is correlated primarily with measures of thought disorder and impaired reality testing, whereas not giving at least one mutual and benevolent interaction response is correlated with impaired capacity for social adaptation (e.g., inappropriate interpersonal behavior and unmodulated affect). The relative failure to give at least one mutual and benevolent response is also correlated with the severity of clinical symptoms. Though the MOA scale was developed to assess object relations, it seems more consistently to assess aspects of psychopathology, such as the severity of clinical symptoms and the extent of thought disorder, and only secondarily the quality of interpersonal relationships.     

Psychology and violence against women

The discipline of psychology has made many contributions to the understanding of the social problem of men's violence against women during the past 15 years by reframing the problem as one of misuse of power by men who have been socialized into believing they are entitled to control the women in their lives, even by violent means. The new scientific psychology data base formed by integrating feminist gender analysis methods into more traditional psychological methodology is discussed, as are the implications of the resulting empirical data on which are based newer assessment, treatment, and forensic applications. A review of the major psychological advances in psychotherapy with women who have been sexual assaulted, exploited, and battered is presented, as well as implications for national policy. The feminist model presented is one in which science and practice concerns are carefully considered at all steps of the process. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges involved in making the future training of psychologists more relevant to women's mental health concerns.     

Malingering dissociative identity disorder: objective and projective assessment

Verification of dissociative identity disorder presents challenges given the complex nature of the illness. This study addressed the concern that this disorder can be successfully malingered on objective and projective psychological tests. 50 undergraduate women were assigned to a Malingering or a Control condition, then completed the Rorschach Inkblot Test and the Dissociative Experiences Scale II. The Malingering group were asked to simulate dissociative identity disorder; controls received instructions to answer all materials honestly. Analysis indicated that malingerers were significantly more likely to endorse dissociative experiences on the Dissociative Experiences Scale II in the range common to patients with diagnosed dissociative identity disorder. However, on the Rorschach there were no significant differences between the two groups. Results suggest that the assessment of dissociative identity disorder requires a multifaceted approach with both objective and projective assessment tools. Research is needed to assess these issues in clinical populations.