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WOMEN WHO KILL
Women who kill: the criminalisation of survivors of domestic abuse (Trigger warning: this article includes mentions of violence and domestic abuse)
The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) recently published groundbreaking research on the experiences of women who kill men who have abused them. Sophie Howes, the author of the report, explains its key findings and what it tells us about women’s experiences of the criminal justice system.
W
omen kill very rarely, and when they do, it is often in circumstances where they are experiencing abuse. Our research found that of all the men killed by women partners/ex-partners over a ten-year period, in 77% of cases there was evidence of domestic abuse. We set out to understand the extent to which the criminal justice system recognises women’s experiences of abuse and treats them fairly. Unlike other studies on this issue, we spoke directly to women affected. We
interviewed 18 women in prison who told us about their experiences as victims of abuse before the killing took place, right through to their conviction. There was a common theme of women finding it hard to disclose the abuse they had experienced, and when they did, they were often either disbelieved or not taken seriously. As Nancy* told us: ‘I didn’t want to kill my boyfriend, but there was a lot more behind it. As much as I tried to tell them, but they were not really listening… it was hard as I loved him and didn’t want to bad-mouth him, but they [the
