ACTIVATING EMPATHY: AN ETHICAL RESPONSE TO BATTERED WOMEN WHO KILL

by

Melissa MacCrae

I submitted this thesis in May 2004, as the culminating work toward a Master of Arts degree focused on Ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary. I post it here so that others may gain from what I learned through my journey and my research. I hope as readers reflect on this paper, that they, too, will be inspired to consider new solutions to the problem of domestic violence and to rethink their responses to the No. 1 cause of death to women in Maine and beyond. I welcome comments about this project and on how Maine can do more to reduce, and ultimately end, domestic violence.

My e-mail address is goddess@mywebanywhere.net

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ............................................................................................................................v

1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................1

How We Think About the Problem Affects its Solutions ........................................1

2. ECOLOGY OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

3. ROOTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN .............................................................5

HIStory: The Way Things Always Have Been ........................................................5

Theology: The Bible Tells Me So ...........................................................................9

Forgiveness is Not Forgetting ....................................................................12

4. AN ETHICAL RESPONSE TO ABUSE VICTIMS WHO KILL ...............................13

Can Killing Ever Be Justified? ...............................................................................13

On Killing in Self-Defense ....................................................................................16

5. THE COMMUNITY RESPONDS ...............................................................................18

Women's Criminality Disturbs the Social Order ..................................................18

An Extraordinary Level of Denial : "Defending Our Lives" ................................19

Vella Pelletier Gogan Chose Life ...........................................................................22

6. HOPE LIES IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ..................30

Toward Healthy Communities ...............................................................................30

Legal Shifts: Do Mandatory Arrests Add Insult to Injury?.....................................33

Money Matters: Domestic Violence Costs Employers............................................34

IMAGINE A VIOLENCE-FREE FUTURE................................................................37

Resurrecting Women..............................................................................................38

Reframing Community Health Concerns................................................................39

Toward a Woman-Centered Theology of Resistance .............................................40

Embracing Mother God

8. CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................................43

Well-behaved women rarely make news

A Prayer for a Peaceful Life...................................................................................46

9. SOURCES CONSULTED ..........................................................................................47

10. APPENDIX .................................................................................................................51

1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (abridged) .............................51

2. Maine Domestic Violence Projects....................................................................53