The Utility of Diagnostic Language as Expert Witness Testimony: Should Syndrome Terminology Be Used in Battering Cases?

ABSTRACT

With the acceptance of expert witness testimony on the battered woman syndrome in the late 1970s, courts recognized that inherent in such physical violations are psychological deprivations as well. These detriments, which have become of great interest to the psychological community in learning about and making accurate diagnoses, can be used as evidence in cases where a battered woman kills her husband and claims self-defense. This article examines the utility of employing the battered woman syndrome and assesses how diagnostic language can affect the admissibility of expert evidence in battering cases. It provides an analysis of the battered woman syndrome and other disorders with symptoms characteristic of the reactions battered women experience. I conclude that diagnostic constructs should not be used in battering cases within the self-defense context because they create unnecessary stereotypes in which all women may not fit and often exclude relevant testimony that could help assist the fact finder in determining the ultimate issues. Rather, it is the case-specific and idiosyncratic reactions, without a diagnostic label, that will allow the factfinder to understand the perceptions the defendant had at the time she killed her mate.

KEYWORDS:

• Battered woman syndrome
• expert witness testimony
• diagnostic language
• Federal Rules of Evidence 403 and 702
• Daubert
• Kuhmo
• Joiner