Finding Our Voice, Sharing Our Vision

Ending Violence Against Women and Children

BATTERED JUSTICE: BATTERED WOMEN VICTIMIZED AGAIN

Written by Louise Bauschard in St. Louis, MO; December 1990

For the past nine years, I have been working in one form or another with battered women who are charged with and/or convicted of a crime. The crimes have ranged from prostitution, stealing and drugs to assault, homicide, rape, etc. For many of these women, their first involvement with other battered women and advocates from the battered women's movement has been in a jail education group, listening to another woman speak of her experiences of being abused. Before their incarceration, most of these women were living on the edge of life and death and were incapable of believing that anyone could help them. Some of the women tried to get help but found that it did not stop the violence and often led to more severe beatings.

The stories in jails are similar to the stories heard on our hotlines and in our safehomes - although they have taken a darker turn. Instead of helping the women reach out for help to the police and prosecutors, my co-facilitators and I are guiding them to reach out to public defenders and judges and encouraging them to tell their stories of fear and terror. This is not easy. Few court and correctional staff have any degree of understanding "battered woman syndrome" and other aspects of the criminal acts taken by battered women. There is an immense void of resources available to women when their attempts to stop the violence have failed and when they are prosecuted for crimes resulting from the batterer's violence. There is almost no awareness in the system as to who these women are and what makes them behave in the way that they do.

My two co-facilitators and I run two weekly groups in the St. Louis city and county jails for battered women who are in the pre-trial stage. We do individual counseling with those women and upon their request and due to our own sense of urgency, attempt to reach attorneys and others to start action on their behalf. The work is both delicate and frustrating. Pre-trial confined women have little idea of the workings of the court and little pull in getting attorneys to take special interest in their cases. It then becomes everyone's responsibility to make the criminal justice system responsive to women who get battered. Yet very often we don't know how to do this.

There is a growing awareness of the presence of advocates who work on behalf of battered women in the jails and courts. I appeared as an expert witness for a jury trial several weeks ago to share my understanding fo women who have been battered. From that experience I have learned a lot but have a great deal more ahead. I have also learned that although cases may carry similar conditions they are handled very differently.

Networking skills are very important when working in this area. I have been able to make contact with people in the public defender's office, appeals office, police training bureau, victim-witnesses, media and with families of battered women, caseworkers in jail, social workers, judges, probation and parole, advocates for prison reform and many others.

One of my co-facilitators is a formerly incarcerated abused woman and the other co-facilitator had an abusive relationship. Both these women accompany women to court, and one of them is beginning to meet with women in individual counseling sessions.

There are many more women at both institutions who need our support but our ability to reach them is limited to the time available. We hope to add more volunteers in the future and to develop the program to include information about each woman who comes into the jail. I hope to do trainings with public defenders in the near future. To make a difference in the lives of the women, advocates should try and reach them before they proceed to trial or plea bargain. For so many of them the shame and guilt of past violence prevents them from relating their experiences to their attorneys. With our encouragement and belief in their right to speak out against this violence, these revelations become a significant and crucial part of the court record and proceedings.

Article was reprinted in the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women: Working Papers: Set #2 (May 1991).