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- Title
Psychological Self-Defense Jury Instructions: Influence on Verdicts for Battered Women Defendants.
- Authors
Greenwald, Jessica P.; Tomkins, Alan J.; Kenning, Mary; Zavodny, Denis
- Abstract
Ewing (1987) has proposed a new legal doctrine called Psychological Self-Defense, which is intended to provide a legal justification for a killing committed under the threat of extremely serious psychological injury. This study examines the effect of such an affirmative defense on the verdict in two vignette casts in which a battered woman killed her abuser. One-hundred ninety-six subjects issued verdicts after reading the case vignettes and a series of jury instructions which varied by self-defense instruction (Psychological Self-Defense Only, Physical Self-Defense Only, Psychological and Physical Self-Defense, or none of these). Only psychological self-defense instructions significantly influenced verdict patterns, primarily by shifting would-be voluntary manslaughter convictions to acquittals.
- Subjects
SELF-defense (Law); ACTIONS &; defenses (Law); VIGNETTES; ABUSED women; MANSLAUGHTER; VERDICTS
- Publication
Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 1990, Vol 8, Issue 2, p171
- ISSN
0735-3936
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/bsl.2370080209