Introduction
There are many complicated issues between law and psychology, especially in applying psychological knowledge in the legal context. One of the most serious situations is when a woman being abused by her partner kills him. This might be a murder. This might be a self-defense. How should law deal with such a case? There is a dilemma with equality and discretion. Should all cases of actual killing be considered as murders? Is it possible to consider killing of a sleeping batterer as an act of self-defense? If there must be some degree of discretion, who are to decide this degree? Is it a judge? Is it primarily the duty of the jury to find the moral and just way to deal with this problem? There are too many questions with the issue of battered women who killed their husbands to ignore this problem
The paper will discuss the psychological perspective on the cases of killing of the batterers by their victims and the consideration of the battered woman syndrome in these cases. Also, in order to approach the problem in a fair way, the paper will look at the legislation (Criminal Code of Canada (1985) and its application in the case where the apprehended threat of death or grievous bodily harm is not immediate, and therefore the reasonableness of deadly force cannot be obviously assessed (R. v. Lavallee (1990).