Language, Symbolism, and Politics by Richard M. Merelman

Author:Richard M. Merelman [Merelman, Richard M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General, History & Theory
ISBN: 9780813385815
Google: -MiBAAAAMAAJ
Goodreads: 3709539
Publisher: Westview Press
Published: 1992-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

Juridical Power

The social science theory of domestic violence is connected to practice, in particular, by measures which define concrete state intervention. The modern social paradigm posits a dilemma between strategies of "compassion" and "control." The compassion approach is considered problematic because the professionals' excessive identification with the plight of their clients may lull them into the impression that they actually "do something" for the person by forming an emotional bond.60 Although the model of "compassion" counteracts the indifference of the old social work approach, the more "effective" control model places the professional in the role of "aggressive [user] of intervention to limit, and if necessary, to punish domestic violence." The preference for control strategies legitimates the trend in social work practices to mediate their powers through state agencies (placing the protection of the battered woman within a complex system of government bureaucracies) rather than defend their client against the state's neglect and indifference.61 The social work bureaucracy assumes a regulatory role over the social welfare apparatus, especially the police. This solidifies the power of the social work profession, and establishes its crucial role in training the police and other contact personnel.62

The introduction of the "Battered Women's Syndrome" to criminal defense strategies has created a public forum for the professional construction of abused spouses. These spectacles of the battered women's story have reinforced rather than transformed the dominant sexual stereotypes of victimized women. The linking together of therapeutic and legal discourses, in fact, immunizes the interpretation of the identities of battered women from political critique.

The introduction of expert testimony on the Battered Women's Syndrome is permissible if this evidence is "beyond the ken of the average layman."63 The relevance of the psychological testimony is, therefore, dependent upon the professional contention that the diagnosis of the syndrome requires specialized expertise and that the techniques are "generally accepted in the psychological community."64 The claim for psychological expertise is made at the expense of giving credit to the battered woman's self-awareness or her ability to make a defense on her own terms. The woman is considered an ineffective advocate of her own cause and, in most cases, the psychological documentation of her "minimization" of the violence is essential to the psychological verification of the syndrome.

Although these psychological tools are sometimes utilized in legal actions against violent men, the creation of the Battered Women's Syndrome is primarily a defense tactic to introduce testimony about a history of abusive spouses in homicide cases. The labeling of the syndrome has focused public attention on the unusual case of women who kill their violent spouse.65 As a consequence, the political message of the battered women's movement has been transformed by focusing attention on abused women as fearful, desperate, and driven to murder. The justification of women's violence as self-defense is made at the cost of creating a special category of insanity for battered women for mass public consumption. In fact, the indicators of battered women's syndrome on the prevailing tool, "DSM-III diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorders,"66 are exactly the same as the symptoms of schizophrenia and borderline personality disorders.

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