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when a team of researchers Researchers at the Stanford Criminal Justice Center began investigating people convicted of manslaughter and murder in California women's prisons, and the results immediately showed that intimate partner violence (IPV) played a significant role in many of their cases.
A man stabbed to death an ex-boyfriend who she said attacked her after stalking her for months. Another said she killed her partner who beat and raped her after law enforcement failed to protect her despite her reporting.
Of the 649 people who filled out the survey, nearly three-quarters had been abused in the year before the crime. according to”fatal danger,” a report analyzing the survey results showed that most of the survivors interviewed were at extreme risk of being killed by their abusers, as determined by a modified version of the Danger Assessment Tool prosecutor, victim advocates and Domestic Violence Shelters.
in the most recent New York Times opinion piece, Rachel Louise Snyderr,《No obvious bruises” points out that American self-defense law is partly derived from the “Castle Doctrine,” a 17th-century English common law principle that allows men to protect themselves at home from outside attacks.
Snyder writes, “These visions of self-defense do not fully envision the situation in which a spouse would be continually assaulted, with increasing severity, by another person with equal rights in the home.”
But the connection between domestic violence and incarceration extends beyond self-defense laws.
As they surveyed people, the Stanford researchers quickly realized that their initial focus on women who killed their abusers was not broad enough to cover the many ways domestic violence can lead to a person being imprisoned.
Some survey respondents went to jail for helping their abusers commit crimes because they feared what their abusers would do if they didn't comply. Other respondents said they were punished for failing to protect their children from fatal abuse. These responses reflect the findings of recent Marshall Project surveys.
A survey respondent was jailed after her abusive partner killed one of her children while she was at work. She said he discovered the supplies she had packed to leave him and punished her by hurting her children. California law allows parents to be punished for putting children in dangerous situations.
“When a person experiences extreme and severe IPV, their risk of being killed extends to everyone around the survivor,” said Debbie Mukamal,executive Director stanford criminal justice center and one of the study’s authors.
The experiences of those in California prisons are not unique. The Marshall Project's investigation found nearly 100 cases across the country in which people – almost all women – were punished for their abusers' actions under little-known laws such as “failed to protect” and “accomplice liability.” Although the laws vary, every state has some version of accomplice liability.
some people from stanford university investigative Said they were in jail for actions they took while trying to escape. One person wrote: “I ran away from home with my four kids. My ex-husband hit the back seat of my car, causing me to crash. She said she was in jail for vehicular manslaughter because one of her young children of children died in the accident.
At least 16 people interviewed said they were incarcerated for drunken driving homicides linked to alcohol or drugs used to cope with abuse.
Some states are working to reduce penalties for survivors of domestic violence. New YorkFor example, there is a law that allows a person's history of intimate partner violence to be considered when sentencing or resentencing.
Last month, Oklahoma became the latest state to take the measure. this Oklahoma Survivors Act allow abuse survivor Serve a shorter sentence in some cases. April Wilkens is the first person File a petition for reconsideration under the new law. Wilkens served 26 years in prison for killing his fiancé. according to The Oklahomanhe has Handcuffed her and raped her.however, until the new law is in place, “she cannot use evidence of domestic abuse when applying for early release.”
Illinois also has recently expanded People who can apply for a harsher sentence due to domestic violence. Since 2016, state law has Abuse is allowed to be taken into account in sentencing if it is directly related to the crime. However, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that this provision does not apply to anyone who pleads guilty. one A law signed in August changes that.
Other cases in Illinois remain ineligible. Pat Johnson's case was protected by the Marshall Plan and despite strong evidence of abuse and minimal involvement in the crime, he was not eligible for resentencing in Illinois because Johnson was serving a mandatory life sentence. Unlike New York, Illinois law does not provide for judges to deviate from mandatory minimums when considering such sentencing reductions.
Efforts in other states to pass laws to help incarcerated survivors of domestic violence have failed in recent years, including in oregon, Louisiana and minnesota.
Given the high rates of women in prison who report abuse, changes in such laws are likely to have at least some impact on how many of them are imprisoned. this Female incarceration rate has grown up Men have grown at twice the rate in recent decades. “The number of women in prison will increase by 5% between 2021 and 2022 alone,” according to fatal danger study.
Addressing female incarceration rates means confronting how surviving abuse and crime are intertwined, and recognizing that survivors of intimate partner violence may not live up to good social expectations. “There is a myth of the 'perfect' victim that needs to be dispelled,” Mukamal said.
Marshall Project staff writer Shannon Heffernan will be hosting an Q&A session on Reddit to discuss survivors incarcerated for crimes committed by their abusers. Join her on Reddit September 18 at 11:30 a.m. ET.
