Dr. Follingstad et al., REPUTATION AND BEHAVIOR OF BATTERED WOMEN WHO KILL THEIR PARTNERS - DO THESE VARIABLES NEGATE SELF-DEFENSE, Journal of family violence, 11(3), 1996, pp. 251-267
Vignettes describing a case in which a bartered woman killed her husba
nd were presented to college students. Independent variables were the
presence ol absence of verbal aggression by the woman toward her husba
nd before the final beating, the woman's reputation and social desirab
ility as a wife and mother; and whether or not a weapon was present wh
en the battering husband threatened the woman before she killed him. A
fter reading a vignette, subjects (N = 413) selected a verdict, report
ed what influenced their verdicts, and completed attitudinal measures
on sex-role attitudes, attitudes toward wife-beating, and 'just world'
' attitudes. The presence of verbal aggression by the woman increased
the odds of subjects choosing a guilty verdict by 1.71 times compared
to the absence of verbal aggression. A defendant characterized as a ''
bad'' wife/mother or a dysfunctional wife/mother was, respectively, 6.
24 and 2.49 times more likely to be found guilty rather than not guilt
y by reason of self-defense (NGRSD) than the ''good'' wife/mother. Use
of a weapon by the husband did not significantly increase the number
of NGRSD verdicts over conditions in which no weapon was present. Neit
her subjects' attitudes nor demographics appeared to be related to the
ir choice of verdicts.