When Battered Women Kill

Drawing on her extensive interviews and an examination of psychological, social, and legal dimensions, Browne presents a unique portrait of the dynamics and development history of conjugal violence. She shows that, in many ways, the victims are a lot like the rest of us, and argues that much of what happens in the early stages of these relationships is consistent with the romantic tradition of male-female interaction. Finding reasons where others have seen masochistic pathology, Browne shows how these women, like other victims, adapted their behaviour to their tormentors to minimize the abuse. They made the radical shift from victim to murderer when a drastic change in the type of abuse shattered the limits within which they had suffered in silence. Angela Browne is a pioneering researcher on homicide by battered women. Since 1979 she has interviewed over 400 battered women as part of a NIMH funded survey.