Lenore E. A. Walker - The Battered Woman Syndrome, Fourth Edition

THE BATTERED WOMAN SYNDROME

Lenore E. A. Walker, EdD, is a professor at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) College of Psychology, where she is also a coordinator of the clinical forensic psychology doctoral concentration and director of the masters in forensic psychology program. She is also in the independent practice of forensic psychology, where she specializes in work with victims of interpersonal gender violence, particularly battered women and abused children. Dr. Walker earned her undergraduate degree in 1962 from City University of New York (CUNY) Hunter College, her master of science in 1967 from CUNY City College, and her EdD in psychology in 1972 from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In 2004, she received a postdoctoral masters degree in clinical psychopharmacology at NSU. She has been elected as a member of American Psychological Association (APA) governance since the mid-1980s, having served several terms on the APA Council of Representatives; on the board of directors; as the president of several divisions, including Division 35, the Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 42, Independent Practice, and Division 46, Media Psychology; and on boards and committees such as the Committee on Legal Issues (COLI) and the Committee on International Relations in Psychology (CIRP).

She has worked on high-publicity (and thus high-risk) cases such as battered women who kill their abusive partners in self-defense, and has testified on behalf of protective mothers who are being challenged for custody by abusive fathers. She lectures and does training workshops all over the world about prevention, psychotherapy, legal cases, and public policy initiatives for abused women and children. Dr. Walker has authored numerous professional articles and 15 books, including The Battered Woman (1979), The Battered Woman Syndrome (1984/2000), Terrifying Love: Why Battered Women Kill and How Society Responds (1989), Abused Women and Survivor Therapy (1994), Introduction to Forensic Psychology (2004, coauthored with David Shapiro), Abortion Counseling: A Clinicians Guide to Psychology, Legislation, Politics, and Competency (2007, coauthored with Rachel Needle), First Responders Guide to Abnormal Psychology (2007, coauthored with William Dorfman), and A Clinicians Guide to Forensic Psychology (2016, coauthored with David Shapiro).

THE BATTERED WOMAN SYNDROME

Fourth Edition

Lenore E. A. Walker, EdD

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Walker, Lenore E., author.

Title: The battered woman syndrome / Lenore E. A. Walker, EdD.

Description: Fourth Edition. | New York : Springer Publishing Company, 2016. | Revised edition of the authors The battered woman syndrome, 2009. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016020159 | ISBN 9780826170989

Subjects: LCSH: Wife abuseUnited States. | Abused wivesUnited StatesPsychology.

Classification: LCC HV6626.2 .W33 2016 | DDC 362.82/92dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020159

Printed in the United States of America by Gasch Printing.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

PREFACE

This new, fourth edition of The Battered Woman Syndrome has been a joy for me to write given the enormous amount of new research and practice that has arisen within the almost 40 years since the first edition was written in the early 1980s. The first edition contained the results of the initial research study that was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health from 1977 through 1981. It was the first time a psychologist had studied the impact of over 400 women experiencing domestic violence. The amount of data collected was enormous and the first edition contained numerous tables and figures to help explain the findings. Initially, some of the information was used to inform policy makers, especially in helping the criminal justice field become more sensitive to the needs of battered women so they could be better protected. The data were there for the use of new researchers, a process that is used in advancing scientific knowledge.

In the second edition, published in 2000, I integrated the new research that had been published in the almost 20 years since the original data were collected and disseminated. It was exciting to see how the field of study had grown; where it changed and where it stayed pretty much the same. Laws had changed and were enforced. More women were better protected. Political discourse about what to call domestic violence became a challenge, with advocates wanting to use the term intimate partner abuse/violence rather than domestic violence or even battered women. The links and boundaries with child abuse and other family violence were established. The commonalities with other forms of gender violence such as rape, sexual assault, exploitation, and harassment were clarified. Calls for more policy changes, especially to better protect children and mothers going through divorces, were issued. The data were there, but the time was not right to make the necessary changes in family court laws and presumptions to better protect abused women and children, despite the fact that the issues in domestic violence were similar around the world. During this time period, the United Nations and World Health Organization became involved and collected and disseminated information to encourage all countries to make policy changes.