Battered person syndrome
Battered Person Syndrome (BPS) refers to the psychological effects experienced by individuals—predominantly women but also men—who endure ongoing physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from intimate partners. The concept emerged in the 1970s, primarily through the work of psychologist Lenore Walker, who identified a range of traumatic responses, including lowered self-esteem and learned helplessness, associated with domestic violence. BPS is considered a subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by symptoms such as flashbacks, emotional numbness, and heightened anxiety.
Research indicates that many victims of abuse display complex patterns of behavior and emotional responses, often leading to traumatic bonding with their abuser. The incidence of domestic violence is significant, with millions affected each year. Effective treatment typically involves psychological support integrated with community services, focusing on safety and empowerment for survivors. Additionally, BPS has gained recognition in legal contexts, where it may be used as a defense in cases where a battered individual harms their abuser. Despite its importance, BPS has faced challenges in court regarding its universal applicability and research basis.
Battered person syndrome
- DATE: 1970s forward
- TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: Psychotherapy; social psychology
Introduction
As the women’s movement raised social awareness of domestic violence in the 1970s, Lenore Walker, an American psychologist, began interviewing women who had been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused by their husbands and boyfriends. Contrary to the notion that battered women are masochistic, her interviewees abhorred the abuse and wished to be safe. Walker formulated the concept of battered woman syndrome, later renamed battered person syndrome in recognition of its similar effects on men who have suffered abuse, to describe a constellation of reactions to domestic violence, especially traumatic responses, lowered self-esteem, and learned helplessness.
Diagnostic Features
Walker and others argue that battered person syndrome is a subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in that it stems from an unusually dangerous, life-threatening stressor and that it involves traumatic stress symptoms, including cognitive intrusions (such as flashbacks), avoidant or depressive behaviors (such as emotional numbness), and arousal or anxiety symptoms (such as hypervigilance). American psychologist Angela Browne described further correspondence between battered person syndrome and PTSD, including recurrent recollections of some abusive events, memory loss for others, psychological or social detachment, and constricted or explosive emotions. Complex PTSD, as formulated by American psychiatrist Judith Herman, further recognizes the multifaceted pattern of personality, relationship, and identity changes in the survivor.
The low energy, heightened fear and anxiety, and decreased self-care that come with depression and associated coping mechanisms such as substance use may impede the ability of a person who is being abused to seek safety. Walker’s research participants often developed learned helplessness when previous efforts to avoid abuse led to increased violence. However, American psychologist Edward Gondolf and others have found that battered people are more resourceful and persistent in their self-protection and help-seeking than Walker’s sample suggested.
Walker’s cycle of violence consists of a tension-building stage, an acute battering stage, and a loving contrition stage. The battered person often becomes acutely aware of the warning signs of the first stage that signal imminent danger in the second stage. Canadian psychologists Donald Dutton and Susan Painter have found that while this cycle is not universal, the intermittence of battering often leads to traumatic bonding, in which the person finds love, self-esteem, and even protection from the same person who alternately abuses and woos them.
Incidence, Prevalence, and Risk Factors
A task force of the American Psychological Association estimated in 1994 that four million women in the United States are victims of domestic violence each year, and one in three women will be assaulted by a partner sometime in their lives. Research in the 1990s found that between 31 percent and 89 percent of battered women meet the criteria for PTSD. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control's 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (2011) found that 25 percent of women and about 14 percent of men have been severely physically assaulted by an intimate partner; 81 percent of women and 35 percent of men who were violently assaulted by an intimate partner, raped, or stalked reported being severely affected by post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, injuries, or other impacts. In the 2020s, the National Domestic Violence Hotline reported around twenty-four people experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking every minute, totaling over 12 million individuals each year. Few individual predictors for becoming a victim of or being vulnerable to battered person syndrome have been confirmed. Among those suggested are witnessing or experiencing violence in one’s family of origin, leaving home at an early age, and holding traditional, nonegalitarian gender roles.
Treatment
Psychological treatments are usually most effective when integrated with community services that aim to eliminate the economic, legal, and social obstacles to the safety of a person who is fleeing an abusive partner by offering temporary shelter, support groups, and financial, job, and legal assistance. Partner violence often comes to light in the context of couples therapy, and then only with appropriate assessment questions. Because of the power differential and coercion present when a partner is violent, batterer treatment should always precede consideration of couples therapy.
Therapy for the survivor usually begins with danger assessment and safety planning, exploration of the abuse history, and screening for PTSD and other psychological reactions. In the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR; 2022), PTSD is included in a new chapter on trauma- or stress-related disorders. It is vital that therapy empower clients with PTSD to make their own decisions, to avoid recreating the powerlessness felt under the abuser’s control. The therapist helps the individual recognize their strengths while providing an empathic, nonjudgmental space to tell their story and evaluate the patterns of abuse. Individual or group treatment may be recommended, and symptom management techniques or medication may be introduced. When the individual feels safer, treatment may move into a healing stage in which emotions, self-blame, body issues, childhood abuse, and power and intimacy issues are more fully addressed. While PTSD is a recognized disorder with diagnostic criteria associated with battered person syndrome, this syndrome itself is not a diagnosable condition listed in the DSM-5-TR.
Role of Battered Person Syndrome in Court
In cases in which a battered person kills their abuser, battered person syndrome has become admissible in many courts as part of the defense of provocation or self-defense. Expert testimony is used to combat misconceptions and provide information about battering, so that the jury can interpret the defendant’s perception that defensive action was necessary, much as in other self-defense arguments. The admissibility of expert testimony about battered person syndrome has been challenged on the grounds that the experience and the symptom patterns of battered person syndrome are not universal or adequately researched. However, evidence regarding battered person syndrome has been admitted in the majority of cases in which it has been introduced in the United States. Classic legal cases that paved the way for the battered person syndrome defense in the US court system include Dyas v. United States (1977), Ibn-Tamas v. United States (1979), Weiand v. State (1999), and State v. Yusuf (2002).
Bibliography
Alcaide, Sandra. "The Extension of Battered Woman's Syndrome to Victims of Sex Trafficking." Family and Intimate Partner Violence Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 3, 2015, pp. 332–44.
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed., text revision, American Psychiatric Publishing, 2022, doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.
Blowers, Anita Neuberger, and Beth Bjerregaard. “The Admissibility of Expert Testimony on the Battered Woman Syndrome in Homicide Cases.” Journal of Psychiatry and Law, vol. 22, no. 4, 1994, pp. 527–60.
"Domestic Violence Statistics." National Domestic Violence Hotline, www.thehotline.org/stakeholders/domestic-violence-statistics. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.
Dutton, D. G., and S. Painter. “The Battered Woman Syndrome: Effects of Severity and Intermittency of Abuse.” The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 63, no. 4, 1993, pp. 614–22, doi.org/10.1037/h0079474. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.
Finley, Laura L., editor. Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence and Abuse. ABC-CLIO, 2013.
Holliday, Jessica R., et al. “The Use of Battered Woman Syndrome in U.S. Criminal Courts.” The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, vol. 50, no. 3, 2022, pp. 373–80, doi.org/10.29158/JAAPL.210105-21. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Div. of Violence Prevention. NISVS: An Overview of 2010 Summary Report Findings. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011.
Russell, Brenda, et al. “Intimate Partner Homicide and the Battered Person Syndrome.” Gender and Domestic Violence: Contemporary Legal Practice and Intervention Reforms, 2022, doi.org/10.1093/med-psych/9780197564028.003.0006. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.
Russell, Brenda L. Battered Woman Syndrome as a Legal Defense: History, Effectiveness and Implications. McFarland, 2010.
Russell, Brenda, et al. "Expert Testimony of the Battered Person Syndrome, Defendant Gender, and Sexual Orientation in a Case of Duress: Evaluating Legal Decisions." Journal of Family Violence, vol. 27, no. 7, 2012, pp. 659–70.
Walker, Lenore E. Abused Women and Survivor Therapy. American Psychological Association, 1996.
Walker, Lenore E. The Battered Woman Syndrome. 4th ed., Springer, 2017.
Walker, Lenore E., et al. Women Who Kill: Violence, Trauma, and Forensic Psychology. Routledge, 2024.