ABSTRACT
A number of writers repeatedly emphasize that the theory should be denominated "women's self-defense," perhaps to dispel the notion that there is a special exception to the normal rules of self-defense for battered women. Nonetheless, courts and the media relentlessly choose to adhere to the battered woman's defense phraseology. The woman's fear of the man will be influenced by her knowledge of his character and reputation for violence. The fact that the battered woman's defense is more consistent with excuse theory does not answer the feminist concern that excusing battered women who kill, in circumstances they believe create a right of self-defense, may perpetuate undesirable views that women are by nature irrational and that their lives are unworthy of self-defense against a man. Battered women who kill their abusers in perceived self-defense present a special challenge to the criminal justice system, especially to the evolution of the law of self-defense.
