1st Edition
Women Who Kill, Criminal Law and Domestic Abuse
This book presents an informed, coherent and stimulating analysis of UK legal defences of homicide by victims of domestic abuse. Women killing following domestic abuse from a male partner is a significant category of homicide. In some areas of the UK it represents the most common context in which women kill. Yet, despite its significance, it is an aspect of homicide that remains under-researched within a UK context. Much of what is known about cases of this type comes from other jurisdictions. This book brings together a coherent understanding of the UK landscape in this area. It builds upon existing literature, particularly from the US, which has examined this issue from a practical perspective, using the lived experiences of practitioners involved in cases of this type. The collection combines the experiences of those in practice with academic expertise, pointing to potential sites of injustice that exist in this context and offering suggestions for reform. The volume will be a valuable guide for those involved in cases of this nature whilst also offering insight to those academics with an interest in homicide and legal responses to domestic abuse. The book will also be of interest to those working in the area of comparative criminal justice.
List of tables
List of contributors
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Foreword
VERA BAIRD
Introduction: Contextualising cases in which women kill following domestic abuse
RACHEL M. MCPHERSON
1 Diminished responsibility or justifiable homicide?: The case of Sally Challen
EVAN STARK
2 Labelling her mad: Diminished responsibility and medicalised responses to women who kill their abusers
SIOBHAN WEARE
3 Critical perspectives on the partial defence of loss of control: Justice for women?
ANNA CARLINE
4 ‘Fit for purpose in today’s society?’: Reflecting on provocation pleas in modern Scotland
RACHEL M. MCPHERSON
5 Women who kill their abusers and self-defence
RACHEL M. MCPHERSON
6 Legally male: The householder defence, duress and the continuing exclusion of women
SUSAN S.M. EDWARDS
7 A gender and human rights analysis of Scotland’s response to women who kill their abusers
KATHRYN RAMSAY
8 Domestic abuse education in Scottish law schools: Developments and paths forward
RHONDA WHEATE
9 A practitioners’ guide to representing women who kill following domestic abuse
PARAMJIT AHLUWALIA, CLARE WADE KC AND HARRIET WISTRICH
Index
Biography
Rachel M. McPherson is a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of Glasgow. Her socio-legal research is focused on legal responses to domestic abuse (particularly domestic homicide) and how criminal defences are used in practice.
