The typical story goes something like this:

A couple have an emotionally charged disagreement, in many cases initiated by the female. Emotions being what they are, end up feeding upon themselves in a positive feedback loop which we call escalation. We should all recognize that emotionally charged decisions are rarely well thought out or rational. Remembering the popular DV (Domestic Violence) literature the female in a moment of anger escalates to trump the argument in order to win by using the nuclear option to call the police. We see this same logic carried out with domestic gunshot deaths, the availability of another rung on the ladder of emotional escalation leads to further escalation.

When the police make their speedy arrival, the female has not yet cooled down to fully understand the chain of events she has unwittingly unleashed. At the time, winning the argument was more important than the consequences. It's awful lonely being the only one who is right! After a few hours when thoughts are no longer clouded by emotion, the female realizes what has occurred. She then attempts to correct the over reaction but the police, the prosecutor and the judge are not willing to deal with two completely different stories. This is because the pressure of political correctness from feminist groups places them in a position of not believing women or taking them seriously when an accusation is made.

The response of the legal system to reconcile the two stories to their own political cover leads them to lean on junk science. The particular junk science is called BWS (Battered Woman Syndrome). The legal system quickly ducks for political cover by invoking BWS to claim she is being manipulated by the batterer, stereotypically the male. Please note that BWS is not used for men, the operative word being "woman".

The legal system, instead of recognizing the problem for what it is, a dysfunctional relationship in need of counseling of both parties, takes a ham handed approach to separate the parties. The results for the female is guilt from over reacting and for the male, the loser in the contest, is anger and rage at being made homeless or put in jail for a disagreement that did not involve any criminal wrong doing on his part. The anger and rage is from a violation of the male's sense of justice, and not anything to do with his inability to contain his emotions. To highlight the degree of political involvement in DV presumptions by the legal system, the only time when a female is charged with DV is when the female physically strikes the other person (usually the male but about 25% of the time another female) in the presence of the police.

When the female accuser attempts to get the legal system to stop their process, the legal system responds by claiming she has BWS. If the female continues to insist the whole episode was a mistake, the Court and Prosecutor then threaten the woman with prosecution to shut her up. During this whole process, the couple is kept separated under the guise of a cooling off period, which may or may not be legitimate. Any action by the male to contact the female is used as evidence to accuse the male of being manipulative to strengthen their case of BWS and DV.

If you are a woman in a situation as described above, in talking with your lawyer you need to speak honestly about your feelings versus the facts of the situation. The Court is justifying its' behavior on the testimony of an expert to discredit you by claiming characteristics number one and two of BWS listed below. Your lawyer's job is to demonstrate, that the expert opinion is based not on science but political advocacy, that is "junk science". Why is BWS junk science? There is no uniform profile of a person having this problem, it has not been scientifically proven, and in addition, the symptoms listed below are attributable to numerous other psychological conditions. Such as characteristics numbers three and four could be paranoia totally unrelated to the relationship. Characteristics number one and two could actually be the truth, i.e. it was her fault by striking the first blow and therefore she can’t blame anyone but herself.

Additionally, your lawyer must make the case that it was the Court and police that blew the situation out of proportion. Judges don't like that, however, truth telling once in the public record has its effect. Your lawyer must demonstrate that the police and prosecutor have based their "opinions" and therefore actions on unsound legal ground, i.e. BWS.

To get a handle on how the Court system works, be aware that truth is not relevant to the issue at hand. Sounds incredibly cynical, however one must observe the process from beginning to end to realize the masterful manipulation of facts and arguments employed by a politically driven process to arrive at a

legal judgment. The basic premise of the system is to throw up as much crap into the air to see what sticks on the wall. If a judge buys the "argument" it becomes fact. Legal arguments are nothing more than justifications to distort or align the facts to bring about a favorable result for one party. BWS is just such an argument. To the uninformed average person, Justice is about discovering the truth by finding all the facts. To the Court, legal decisions are about the "relevant perception" of the facts. You are experiencing as a woman the difference between these two standards.

An observation made by a woman caught up in the BWS legalities put a fine point on the problem: "We are caught up in a system that has deaf ears to the truth."

Since the Court is alleging you are not acting in your own best interest to defend yourself from DV (which is the part of BWS), here are some relevant articles that may help your lawyer, print them out and make sure he/she reads it:

http://www.expertlaw.com/library/domestic_violence/battered_women.html

BWS has been ruled against by the Supreme Court

http://www.psychologyandlaw.com/battered.htm

http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/domviol/page6.html

http://www.hwylaw.com/CM/Articles/Articles73.asp

It is instructive to know how lawyers use BWS to manipulate the law, knowing their arguments in advance allows time for a reasoned counterpoint.

http://www.divorcenet.com/states/oregon/or_art02

The Battered Woman Syndrome (1984) p. 95-97. There are four general characteristics of the syndrome:

1. The woman believes that the violence was her fault.

2. The woman has an inability to place the responsibility for the violence elsewhere.

3. The woman fears for her life and/or her children's lives.

4. The woman has an irrational belief that the abuser is omnipresent and omniscient.