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12 J. Fam. Violence 1 (1997)

handle is hein.journals/jfamv12 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1997 Incarcerated Battered Women: A Comparison of Battered Women Who Killed Their Abusers and Those Incarcerated for Other Offenses Maura O'Keefe1 The present study compared battered women incarcerated for killing/seriously assaulting their abusers with battered women incarcerated for other offenses to explore possible similarities and differences in the characteristics and experiences of the two groups as well as to determine what factors may lead some battered women to use lethal force against their partners. Comparisons were made on a number of variables including sociodemographic factors, characteristics of the battering relationship, alcohol/drug use of battered women and their abusers, perceived social support, actions taken to end the violence, prior criminal behaviors, and childhood trauma factors. Findings revealed that women in the homicide/assault group were older in the relationship longer and experienced a longer duration of violence in this relationship. They also experienced more frequent and severe battering, including sex assaults and sustained more injuries than those in the comparison group. Further, battered women who killed/seriously assaulted their partners were more likely to believe that their lives were in danger were less likely to use violence against their partners, and were less likely to have a prior criminal record or to have served time previously. The implications of the findings are discussed. KEY WORDS: battered women; incarceration; family violence; homicide. INTRODUCTION Considerable research on battered women has been conducted over the past 2 decades. Both the 1980 and 1985 National Family Violence Sur- veys revealed that approximately 12% of women in the United States are 1University of Southern California, School of Social Work, Los Angeles, California 90089. 1 0885-7482/97/0300-0001$12.50/0 0 1997 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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