Battered Woman Syndrome

Battered woman syndrome (BWS) emerged in the 1990s from several murder cases in England in which women had killed violent partners in response to what they claimed was cumulative abuse, rather than in response to a single provocative act. Feminist groups, particularly Southall Black Sisters and Justice for Women, challenged the legal definition of provocation, and in a series of appeals against murder convictions secured the courts' recognition of battered woman syndrome.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} An early work describing the syndrome is Lenore E. Walker's The Battered Woman.