Use of the Battered Woman Defense in Canada

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The battered woman defense is a defense that is used in court to defend assault/murder charges where the defendant is abused and commits a offence under duress or necessity. It is mainly used by women and also referred to as the battered woman syndrome/battered wife syndrome.

It is not gender specific as men have used this defense but the majority of the accused are female. The argument consists of a woman who are physically assaulted or sexually assaulted, who in their mind thinks they deserve the abuse from the abuser. Which is why they very rarely report it to the authorities and refuse to press charges and the abuse keeps on occurring. They may become depressed and this explains why they didn’t seek help form others, leave they situation, or fight back. It comes to a point were they fear for their own life or safely believing there is no way out and the only option is to kill the abuser or assaulter in order to escape the situation. There is no physiological condition to explain the mental condition they have to get to a point of desperation. Which makes it very hard to hold up in court.

This defense is split up into three parts, the plea of insanity, the plea of self-defense and the plea of duress.

- The plea of insanity is when the defendant has to have a mental illness or disorder at the time of the criminal act. This condition must have impaired the accused mental capacity so she did not understand what she was doing was morally wrong to society and she did not understand the nature of the act or consequences.(USDJ,1996)

-The plea of self-defense is where the accused used physical force this includes the use of a weapon, to respond to the abusers violent actions against them or their family for safety. But there may ...

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...nadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Universite Laval, 2003–, retrieved March 6, 2014 from, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/napolitano_angelina_15E.html

National post (July 5, 2013) Jonathan Kay: The dangerous expansion of ‘battered woman defense’ in Canadian law, Retrieved March 22, 2014 from http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/07/15/jonathan-kay-decision-to-clear-woman-who-hired-hit-man-sets-dangerous-precedent/

National post (July 2, 2013) Barbara Kay: Nicole Doucet is innocent, by reason of gender, Retrieved March 22, 2014 from http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/07/02/barbara-kay-nicole-doucet-is-innocent-by-reason-of-gender/

Supreme court of Canada (may 3,1990) Supreme Court Judgments, case R. v. Lavallee, Retrieved march 22, 2014 from http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/599/index.do?r=AAAAAQAOYmF0dGVyZWQgd29tYW4AAAAAAQ

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