Fortunately, this situation has been changing over the course of time. There has been increased social awareness on the issue of wife abuse. In particular, it is now realized that repeated beatings and other forms of domestic violence can drive some women to retaliate with acts of murder. In turn, this change in social awareness has been causing gradual change in the way the legal system looks at such cases. Thus, the "battered woman syndrome" is starting to be considered as a possible defense in many cases of women who kill. In 1977, in a Montana court case, the psychologist Lenore Walker was the first person to introduce the battered woman syndrome as a legal defense. Since that time, the idea has gained a great deal of attention in the news media. In addition, an increasing number of politicians, judges and lawyers are beginning to consider the syndrome to be a valid motive for murder among women.
It has been estimated that three to four million women in America are battered by their husbands or boyfriends each year. Of this number, a relatively small percentage of abused women end up killing their mates. An even smaller number of these abused women who kill are able to use the battered woman syndrome as a defense. Thus, "between 800 and 1,000 women kill allegedly abusive husbands every year and less than one-third are acquitted." The main reason why these abused women are not acquitted is because the battery defense is generally rejected by the American court system. The law as it currently exists has a very specific way of defining self-defense in murder cases. Thus, for example, "the law on self-defense assumes a fight between two men of the same size and strength, where the killer uses only as much force as the victim." Because of this, if a man is beating a woman and she takes a gun and shoots him, the law would not see this as being an equal fight. As a result, a woman who kills her husband during the cour...