April 21st's class

Wow. Yesterday was a great class! The episode was really fascinating to watch and the guest speakers were really interesting as well. I was especially interested because we talked a lot about my topic: domestic abuse. This episode was not the one I was going to use for my analysis, but it was a helpful to see. It was interesting to see the portrayal of the battering husband. It really demonstrated how a batterer can be anyone. It can be the suave, handsome, community leader and it can be the down and out, poor, working class man. And I also liked how Professor Shaw pointed out that domestic violence crosses every social boundary, it's not limited to one set population of people, which is what we typically think. I wonder what this episode would have looked like if it had been the wife that had killed the husband. One of the points I am researching for my paper is the "Battered Woman Syndrome" and how that defense works in court. It has been really interesting to read case studies about how this syndrome affects battered women and how it can be used in court to justify the killing of a batterer.
I thought this episode was very similar to a book I read called "Black and Blue" by Anna Quindlan. It is a story about an abused wife who after many years of abuse, becomes connected with someone from the underground domestic violence "railroad" and is finally able to escape her husband.
This episode also touched on the "who's justice" question. This was evident when the Domestic Violence shelter could not allow Jill to take her son with her without being accessories to kidnapping. The woman said "Our hands are tied." That always seems to be the case where the law has a way of not helping the victim. It was neat to hear the two guest speakers share their experiences confronting domestic violence. What I thought was interesting is the drastic changes in laws that Oregon has seen. Michelle (I think) was explaining that before these new laws, if the woman decided that she didn't want to press charges against her abuser, then the police couldn't do anything and had to leave. Now with the new law, the police must arrest someone if there is evidence of domestic violence. I think this is a very progressive move. They also mentioned that on the other hand, if a woman fights back and both the abuser and the victim are hurt, they arrest both of them. And that the law gets very complicated when there are different relationships or if children are involved. But I am glad that the law has become more strict about domestic violence and that the issue is becoming a public health concern. As Prof. Shaw said, 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence. Hopefully we can change that!