BATTERED CHILD/SPOUSE SYNDROME
A condition created by sustained physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse, which creates a variety of physical and emotional symptoms.
Violence of any kind is traumatic to victims, and the thought that someone could exert
extreme violence against a loved one or a child is repulsive. Battered-child syndrome and batteredspouse syndrome are both the result of repeated violence—beatings, choking, sexual assault, verbal abuse, or any combination. The resulting trauma leaves its victims with physical and emotional scars, which can show up in a variety of symptoms that can come on gradually or suddenly. Often the symptoms are similar to other, less dangerous conditions. Sometimes there are no visible symptoms. From a legal perspective,
this makes both syndromes difficult to prove. The fact that there is heated disagreement
about these syndromes, what they represent, and in fact whether they are true syndromes at all, only adds to the difficulty.
Although both syndromes stem from the
same violent behavior (and in some cases, the
same perpetrator), they need to be treated separately.
Battered-Child Syndrome
Children can be subjected to violence at the
hands of any adult with whom they have contact.
It could be a parent, an older sibling, a
babysitter, a day-care provider, a family friend, a
parent’s romantic partner—in short, anyone.
Some children are victimized by several people.
The victimization can come in the form of
physical violence, SEXUAL ABUSE, or verbal
abuse. If one of these factors is present, chances
are that others are present as well. Physical
abuse can go undetected for a long time. A
child who suffers repeated falls or broken
bones might be considered “clumsy”, or the
injuries might be brushed off as the kind of
bumps and bruises all children get. Sexual
abuse might have no outward signs, or the victim
might be unusually forward or inappropriately
flirtatious with adults.
Even INFANTS are not immune to abuse. In
shaken-baby syndrome, a baby is shaken so violently
that brain injury can occur; repeated
shaking episodes or even just one particularly
severe episode can result in death.
A child suffering from BATTERED CHILD
SYNDROME might be quiet and withdrawn,
lethargic, depressed, or violent. Someone who
does not know the particular child might not
immediately spot emotional symptoms, but if
the child displays unchildlike behavior, coupled
with unexplained chronic physical bruising,
chances are the child is a victim of abuse.
Those who investigate child-abuse crimes
must be extremely thorough, especially if the
child is very young and thus unable to corroborate
what the evidence shows. Sometimes a
physician will spot signs of abuse or batteredchild
syndrome when a child is brought into an
emergency room for treatment of some injury.
A full investigation requires interviews with
anyone who has access to the child, including
parents, siblings, other relatives, neighbors,
day-care providers or babysitters, teachers, and
doctors. Even those who are not involved in
abuse might have valuable information to provide.
Often, those who have committed the
abuse will offer vague or conflicting information
about what led to a particular injury. If
warranted, a child could be placed in temporary
PROTECTIVE CUSTODY while an investigation
proceeds. Depending on the extent and severity
of abuse, those who have committed the
abuse might benefit from counseling or other
forms of treatment (e.g., substance or they
might face criminal charges and serve a prison
sentence.
Battered-Spouse Syndrome
Battered-spouse syndrome is more commonly
called “battered-women’s syndrome”
because most of the victims are women, either
wives or girlfriends of the perpetrators. In recent
years, however, abused husbands and boyfriends
have gained increased attention, as have samesex
abuse by gay and lesbian partners. With
CHILD ABUSE, investigators are often at a loss
because the child is too young to testify. In cases
of battered-spouse syndrome, however, the
problem is that often the victim refuses to testify.
Guilt and shame are primary reasons, particularly
for men who expect they will be ridiculed
for being abused by a woman. Fear is an even
stronger factor in abuse victims’ silence.
Typical symptoms of a battered-spouse syndrome
victim include the openly physical
ones—bruises, black eyes, broken bones, cuts
and scratches. The emotional symptoms include
depression, lack of self-esteem, and hopelessness.
Sufferers might be “hypervigilant” to any
signs of conflict on the part of the spouse.
Denial that a problem exists is a common
response to questions from concerned friends,
loved ones, or even medical professionals.
The phrase “battered-women’s syndrome”
was first used in the early 1980s; in ensuing
years, lawyers began using the “battered woman”
defense in HOMICIDE cases in which women
killed their husbands or boyfriends. Many
women claimed SELF-DEFENSE, explaining that
the murder victim had been physically abusive
for years. As the concept of battered-spouse syndrome
became more clearly articulated in the
1980s and 1990s, the syndrome as a self-defense
argument gained strength. In fact, it played into
the clemency decisions of several governors,
beginning with Governor Richard Celeste of
Ohio, who in 1990, granted clemency to 25
women who had murdered their spouses. Their
trials had been unfair, he concluded, because
testimony about their abuse had not been
allowed as evidence. Other governors followed
suit in the ensuing years, including Maryland
governor Donald Schaefer,Massachusetts governor
William Weld, and California governors Pete
Wilson and Gray Davis. Experts in DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE explained to skeptics the reason why
many battered women did not simply leave their
husbands, either to stay with friends or go to a
women’s shelter. In some cases, they said, these
women had been so emotionally broken that
they were too frightened to leave. Some had
been abused for so long that they had actually
come to believe that they were responsible for
their own abuse.
In the 1990s, a new movement emerged to
point out that abuse can happen to men as well
as women. The number of abused men was estimated
at no higher than five percent of the
abuse cases, and to a large extent it was not
taken seriously. Advocacy groups for women
claimed that for a man to claim that his wife or
girlfriend physically terrorized him were absurd.
Law enforcement officials often took abuse
charges less seriously when the complainant was
a man. In recent years, statistical evidence about
male abuse has been gaining credibility. Moreover,
gay and lesbian partner abuse has also
begun to be taken more seriously. In 1999, a
Brooklyn, N.Y. Supreme Court judge ruled that
a gay man who had stabbed his partner to death
could invoke battered-spouse syndrome at his
trial.
The bottom line from a legal standpoint is
that battered-spouse syndrome, like batteredchild
syndrome, requires solid and substantive
evidence if it is to be used as a defense in a murder
trial. A woman who has no visible physical
signs of abuse might have been abused, but simply
claiming to have been abused with no evidence
at all at least warrants a thorough
investigation. Cases in which women—and
men—have claimed that an estranged spouse
has been violent, simply to gain custody of their
children, are not uncommon. The issue of battered
spouses may be clearer in the first years of
the twenty-first century than it was in the 1970s
and 1980s, but it continues to evolve.
FURTHER READINGS
Cook, Philip W. 1997. Abused Men: The Hidden Side of
Domestic Violence. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
U.S. Department of Justice. 2002. Battered Child Syndrome:
Investigating Physical Abuse and Homicide. Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.
Walker, Lenore E. 1979. The Battered Woman. New York:
Harper & Row.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Domestic Violence; Child Abuse;Women’s Rights.
