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Abstract: Intimate partner abuse and violence (IPA/IPV) perpetrated by men upon women has physical, emotional, psychological, behavioural and cognitive impacts on its victim/survivors. In England and Wales (EW) and in the United States (US) women who in resisting male violence kill under these circumstances face an intransigent substantive law in urgent need of reform. An understanding of the impact habitual abuse and entrapment has on women’s strategies for survival and her heightened yet reasonable fear of imminent attack is needed. The article draws on research and case law in both jurisdictions which focuses on the relevance of expert witness advocacy, providing novel insights on coercive control, IPV/A and habitual abuse and their impact on its victims, and calls for greater use of expert witnesses to address the history of violence and entrapment and the impact of violence on a victim/defendants cognitive awareness of an abuser’s propensity for violence and abuse. Such understandings need to inform case building, improved trial advocacy, and align more closely in construing what is a reasonable and proportionate response to these circumstances.
Keywords: self-defence; homicide; sentencing; expert opinion; cognition; battered woman’s syndrome; social entrapment
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