Considering New Zealand's Lack of Partial Defences in Relation to Battered Women Who Kill Their Abusers
40 Pages Posted: 18 Mar 2020
Date Written: September 2, 2019
Abstract
Women in New Zealand face high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, when battered women kill their abusers, they are often not well-served by self-defence and few are able to argue the defence effectively. New Zealand has no partial defences, which leaves women stuck between the guilty-not-guilty binary of self-defence on the one hand and a possible murder conviction on the other. Although partial defences are not a perfect solution, they would provide battered women with more options. While there are several different partial defences which could be used in a New Zealand context, a specific IPV- based defence would be the most appropriate, as it could be designed from the ground up and avoid many of the flaws inherent in the other partial defences.
Keywords: Intimate Partner Violence, Partial Defences, Self-Defence, Battered Women
JEL Classification: K00, K14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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