Essay

Essay

Question No 1: What similarities and differences do the Women’s story share?

Answer: Both the women, Lorena Bobbitt and Hedda Nussbaum share the same story of being battered by their partner. They lived in a disturbing and abusive relationship and became the victim of hate crime. They were severely battered by their husbands. But in Lorena’s case, she was sexually assaulted and continuously raped by her husband John, therefore she severed her husband’s penis with a kitchen knife while he was asleep ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"WIQ9GiKE","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Lorena Bobbitt,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Lorena Bobbitt,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":204,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/8WFMFZ9C"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/8WFMFZ9C"],"itemData":{"id":204,"type":"webpage","title":"Lorena Bobbitt","container-title":"Biography","abstract":"Lorena Bobbitt is best known for severing her husband's penis while he slept, in retaliation for his sexual assaults against her.","URL":"https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/lorena-bobbitt","language":"en-us","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,10]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Lorena Bobbitt,” n.d.). In Hedda’s case, she could not do anything in her defense rather she kept living in an abusive relationship.

Question No 2: When an abusive relationship results in serious bodily harm and/or death to the abuser or a third person, what duty, if any, does the victim of abuse bear towards the person harmed or killed?

Answer: Abusive relationship can inflict lasting effects or traumas on victims and on the third person involved in the relationship and that could be a child or any family member. At this point, the abuse bearer should make sure that the third person is safe and should take serious safety measures to save that person from being abused. It’s the duty of the victim to forward a report to the concerned protective authorities.

Question No 3: Did Hedda and Lorena have a duty towards anyone other than themselves? If yes, discuss the duty and whether each woman should have been punished for failing in her duty. If no, explain why no duty existed?

Answer: They do have a duty towards others than themselves because it is not only them who are the victims of abuse rather it’s the whole surrounding that is involved in that abuse. If one is in an abusive relationship that it will affect the third person and in this case of Lorena and Hedda, Hedda was supposed to take care of her eight-year-old child. She had the duty of promptly reporting the crime to the police as her child too was battered by her husband ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"oItz5l4w","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Prah, 2006)","plainCitation":"(Prah, 2006)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":207,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/LAXTDGI3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/LAXTDGI3"],"itemData":{"id":207,"type":"article-journal","title":"Domestic Violence","container-title":"DOMESTIC VIOLENCE","page":"24","source":"Zotero","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Prah","given":"Pamela M"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2006"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Prah, 2006). She was supposed to leave the house with her child or if not her then she must have sent her daughter to a safer place as there are several child protection organizations working to tackle such cases.

Question No 4: Does the battered women’s syndrome/abuse defense give victims an excuse to injure or kill their partners when they stay in abusive relationships for several years rather than leave? Explain

Answer: When someone starts a serious relationship or someone is in a marriage than circumstances changes as both the partners try to hold onto the relation as much as possible. But when the relationship becomes toxic, one should not think of saving the relationship instead, he/she should leave right at that moment ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"eZyzLr67","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Callahan, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Callahan, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":217,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/7NE9PLLF"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/bWNXhCgk/items/7NE9PLLF"],"itemData":{"id":217,"type":"article-journal","title":"WILL THE \"REAL\" BATTERED WOMAN PLEASE STAND UP? IN SEARCH OF A REALISTIC LEGAL DEFINITION OF BATTERED WOMAN SYNDROME","page":"36","volume":"3","source":"Zotero","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Callahan","given":"A RENtE"}]}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Callahan, n.d.). No one has the right to force his/her partner into a relationship he/she does not want as this is the fundamental right of that person. Instead of using battered women’s syndrome as an excuse, they could have left their partners or report to higher authorities about the violence. The battered women would not have to kill their partners if they stood against the violence in the first place. There were a possibility and a chance of leaving their partners instead of becoming the victim.

References:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Callahan, A. Ren. (n.d.). WILL THE “REAL” BATTERED WOMAN PLEASE STAND UP? IN SEARCH OF A REALISTIC LEGAL DEFINITION OF BATTERED WOMAN SYNDROME. 3, 36.

Lorena Bobbitt. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2019, from Biography website: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/lorena-bobbitt

Prah, P. M. (2006). Domestic Violence. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, 24.