Walking in Her Shoes: Battered Women Who kKll in Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland

Abstract

In the light of the common law doctrine of self-defence in Australia, this article considers legislative reforms in Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland to determine the extent to which they require judges and jurors to walk in the shoes of battered women in pursuit of an evaluation of reasonableness. It will be argued that, with the exception of Queensland, which has emphasised the necessity to judge reasonableness from the perspective of the battered woman only in so far as this may enable a verdict of murder to be reduced to manslaughter, the reforms have clarified or extended the common law position.

Keywords: battered women who kill, self-defence, provocation, law reform

JEL Classification: K00, J70