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Full-Text Articles in Criminal Law
So Much Activity, So Little Change: A Reply To The Critics Of Battered Women's Self-Defense, Kit Kinports
So Much Activity, So Little Change: A Reply To The Critics Of Battered Women's Self-Defense, Kit Kinports
Kit Kinports
Prior to 1970, the term "domestic violence" referred to ghetto riots and urban terrorism, not the abuse of women by their intimate partners. Today, of course, domestic violence is a household word. After all, it has now been ten years since the revelation of football star O.J. Simpson's history of battering purportedly sounded "a wake-up call for all of America"; ten years since Congress enacted legislation haled as "a milestone . . .truly a turning point in the national effort to break the cycle" of violence; and twenty years since Farrah Fawcett's portrayal of Francine Hughes in the movie The …
Defending Battered Women's Self-Defense Claims, Kit Kinports
Defending Battered Women's Self-Defense Claims, Kit Kinports
Kit Kinports
This Article contends that many battered women who kill their abusive spouses can legitimately raise the standard self-defense claim. No substantial extension of self-defense doctrine is required to justify the acquittal of battered women on self-defense grounds. Furthermore, no special "battered women defense" is necessary or even desirable in such cases. Part I of this Article summarizes the results of psychological research studying abused women and battering relationships. It further explains the concept of the :battered woman syndrome" which describes the effects of sustained physical and psychological abuse by one's husband. Part II discusses the requirements of a successful self-defense …
Beyond The George Zimmerman Trial: The Duty To Retreat And Those Who Contribute To Their Own Need To Use Deadly Self-Defense, Alon Lagstein
Beyond The George Zimmerman Trial: The Duty To Retreat And Those Who Contribute To Their Own Need To Use Deadly Self-Defense, Alon Lagstein
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Many critics have accused Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law of helping George Zimmerman get away with the murder of Trayvon Martin by allowing him to cause the very confrontation in which he ended Martin's life. This paper explores how American law treats defendants who have contributed to their own need to use deadly self-defense. This paper concludes that the duty to retreat, or lack thereof, is not the deciding factor in whether such defendants are allowed to claim self-defense.