Battered Woman’s Syndrome needs to be a mitigating factor

By Annan Boodram – The Caribbean Voice

NEW YORK, NY. Tuesday, July 14, 2020 -- Melissa Playter, a Guyanese woman who suffered years of abuse at the hands of her partner, eventually ended up killing her abuser in what is widely seen as self-defense. Yet not only was she arrested and charged with murder but she was also placed on bail that she could not afford. Fortunately, a local NGO was able to raise the bail and has also offered to help her start a business so she could support herself and her children.

This case highlights the issue of battered woman/people syndrome, which according to a study, Women who kill in response to domestic violence, is “the psychological mind‑set and emotional state of female victims of abuse (developed by Dr. Lenore E. Walker), which explains why women often stay in abusive relationships; and the “slow burn reaction”, where women in a situation of abuse tend to not react instantly to the abuse, partly for psychological reasons but also because of the physical mismatch between the abuser and the victim, which makes an imminent response seem futile or even more dangerous to the victim”.

According to the 2015 study conducted by Linklaters LLP for Penal Reform International, “In the majority of the jurisdictions reviewed, there is no specific legislative basis for a history of abuse to be considered as a mitigating factor...”

This certainly is true with respect to the Caribbean and so The Caribbean Voice strongly urges Caribbean governments and CARICOM to work towards a regional mechanism that:

This situation also raises a number of other issues that need Caribbean governments’ attention and legislation; issues that were also recently ventilated in Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) over the ongoing debate and discussion on the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill. In his contribution to the debate on the bill, MP Dr Surujrattan Rambachan took issue with communities and religious organizations, which do not take an active role in addressing and preventing domestic violence. Actually, Dr. Rambachan was expressing a global truism, one that is more pervasive in Caribbean societies and developing nations.

In fact, there is a long-held view in the Caribbean that you should not get involved in conflicts between wives and husbands because it’s not your business. Now, generations later, we in The Caribbean Voice (TCV), have been saying as loudly and as often as we can that ‘abuse prevention is everybody’s business’, and as such this mindset has to be built into every Caribbean person.

TCV urges Caribbean governments to urgently organize stakeholders’ focus group to come up with coherent and concerted action plans for immediate implementation. By stakeholders we mean organizations that are currently directly involved in gender-based activism – not those who say they are but do nothing, not those who talk, talk and talk but do nothing else and not those who engage in photo ops and pageantry but no concrete action. We also urge that politics be taken out of the equation and that only the passionate and committed, who already give of their time and efforts, be involved.

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