Misunderstanding Judy Norman: Theory as Cause and Consequence

Judy Norman shot her abusive husband during a late afternoon nap while he rested before violently trafficking her that night. The sharp contrast between the extreme violence and danger Judy faced and the denial of a self-defense instruction triggered extensive academic debates about justification and the use of deadly force. Norman became one of the most famous cases involving battered women, appearing in many casebooks and hundreds of law review articles. Despite all this work, the facts of the case contradict much of what scholars have said about Norman. Misconceptions about expert evidence, Battered Woman Syndrome, and battered women drive academic errors that affect evaluation of her need to act immediately, including the timing of sleep and death and the idea that her perceptions of risk were distorted Almost all legal scholars failed to grapple with the looming threat of violent, forcible sexual slavery and therefore did not explore the larger question of whether that threat may justify deadly force in self-defense. Battered woman syndrome and learned helplessness are terms of art. In law, the term battered woman syndrome became a generic umbrella for expert evidence whether or not the expert applied Lenore Walker\u27s original theory. For decades, social scientists have applied other frameworks to understanding the impact of battering, especially survivor theory and coercive control. From the mid-1990s, the term intimate partner violence and its effects replaced battered woman syndrome and learned helplessness, but syndrome terminology persisted in legal contexts, giving Walker\u27s theory disproportionate influence. Simplified concepts of the syndrome led some criminal law theorists to believe that critics of the Norman holding must be relying on expert testimony about passivity and helplessness to argue for change in the concepts of imminence and reasonableness. In fact, the forensic expert at Judy Norman\u27s trial had applied the coercive control framework that became more influential over time. This Article analyzes facts and confronts doctrinal questions in light of current social science. Replacing battered woman syndrome with intimate partner violence and replacing learned helplessness with ... the effects of intimate partner violence, we should reevaluate the literature on Norman and self-defense to identify the best arguments and address new questions

Whiteness and Remedy: Under-Ruling Civil Rights in Walker v. City of Mesquite

Teenagers quote "rules" on how fictional characters survive horror movies: "Never have sex. (Virgins always live.) ... Never say, 'I'll be right back.'"' Another rule predicts the fate of black characters in action films: "The brother always dies first."2 Unsurprisingly, these movie "rules" reflect racist and sexist attitudes in American culture. This Article criticizes a trend in recent cases protecting white plaintiffs3 and argues that courts must not develop "rules" protecting whiteness as a core concern of the requirement that race-conscious remedies for racial discrimination be narrowly tailored. Since early 1987, white plaintiffs have almost never lost on the merits4 in th

Anderson's ethical vulnerability: animating feminist responses to sexual violence

Pamela Sue Anderson argues for an ethical vulnerability which “activates an openness to becoming changed” that “can make possible a relational accountability to one another on ethical matters”. In this essay I pursue Anderson’s solicitation that there is a positive politics to be developed from acknowledging and affirming vulnerability. I propose that this politics is one which has a specific relevance for animating the terms of feminist responses to sexual violence, something which has proved difficult for feminist theorists and activists alike. I will demonstrate the contribution of Anderson’s work to such questions by examining the way in which “ethical vulnerability” as a framework can illuminate the intersectional feminist character of Tarana Burke’s grassroots Me Too movement when compared with the mainstream, viral version of the movement. I conclude by arguing that Anderson’s “ethical vulnerability” contains ontological insights which can allay both activist and academic concerns regarding how to respond to sexual violence

Like gold dust these days’: domestic violence fact-finding hearings in child contact cases

Fact-finding hearings may be held to determine disputed allegations of domestic violence in child contact cases in England and Wales, and can play a vital role for mothers seeking protection and autonomy from violent fathers. Drawing on the author’s empirical study, this article examines the implications for the holding of fact-finding hearings of judges’ and professionals’ understandings of domestic violence and the extent to which they perceive it to be relevant to contact. While more judges and professionals are developing their understanding of domestic violence, the ambit of when and how it is considered relevant to contact has grown increasingly narrow, which suggests that many disputed allegations of domestic violence are disregarded and women and children continue to be put at risk from violent fathers. This bifurcated approach is likely to have significant implications for recent developments in this area of family law which are considered in this article