Women Who Kill Their Abusive Intimate Partners in Non-Confrontational Circumstances - The Need for German Criminal Law Reform

Abstract

To acknowledge the lived realities of women who kill their abusive partners when they are sleeping or inattentive, several jurisdictions have reformed or reinterpreted their criminal laws. Some have introduced specific domestic violence defences while others construe existing defences more broadly in recognition of the circumstances under which abused women kill. Germany, however, has not adopted these approaches. Through analysis of the 2003 Bundesgerichtshof’s, the highest court of ordinary jurisdiction in Germany, so-called ‘family tyrant’ judgment, this article examines the treatment of women who kill their abusers in the German criminal justice system. The article concludes that law reform is necessary to better acknowledge the situation of female victims who kill their abusive intimate partners in non-confrontational circumstances in response to long-term domestic violence.