NCJ Number
120067
Date Published
1986
Length
161 pages
Annotation
In this book, abused women who were charged with felonies tell their stories of the physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual battering they endured.
Abstract
Bureau of Justice statistics show that approximately 456,000 instances of domestic violence are reported every year. Of that number, more than half of the assaults are committed by a spouse or ex-spouse. Some victims of battering, punished for striking back in self defense, are serving time behind the walls of prison. Their peers have found them guilty of murder or manslaughter. Not all were battered by their husbands or only by their husbands. But so prevalent is abuse within marriage that the high incidence of female-beating may be viewed as a terrible microcosm of all domestic violence -- whether by a parent, a lover, a spouse, or even an offspring. The incidence of reported violence by male against female within a living situation and an erratic "justice" toward those who retaliate warrants further investigation. Bibliography.