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Criminal defenses
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The abuse defense is a criminal law defense in which the defendant argues that a prior history of abuse justifies violent retaliation. While the term most often refers to instances of child abuse or sexual assault, it also refers more generally to any attempt by the defense to use a syndrome or societal condition to deflect responsibility away from the defendant. Sometimes the concept is referred to as the abuse excuse, in particular by the critics of the idea that guilty people may use past victimization to diminish the responsibility for their crimes.[1]
When the abuser is the victim of the crime, as is often the case, the abuse excuse is sometimes used as a way to "put the victim on trial".
The Supreme Court of the United States has held on numerous occasions that the defendant should be permitted to present any information that they feel might affect sentencing. Despite this legal precedent, the availability of the abuse defense has been criticized by several legal experts, particularly in the aftermath of the trials of Lorena Bobbitt and the Menéndez brothers. Legal scholar Alan Dershowitz has described the abuse excuse as a "lawless invitation to vigilantism".
^"Women and the Abuse Excuse", by Michael A. Dowd.
The abusedefense is a criminal law defense in which the defendant argues that a prior history of abuse justifies violent retaliation. While the term...
Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a person or thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical...
In 2004, President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the Abu Ghraib abuses. The war on terror, also known as the Global...
Domestic violence is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. Domestic violence is often used...
Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, emotional and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child...
Psychological abuse, often called emotional abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that...
cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in the United...
petition was launched reporting perceived child abuse and neglect. The Franke parents posted in defense of the discipline, saying the incidents had been...
the basis for the battered woman legal defense that has been used in cases of physically and psychologically abused women who have killed their male partners...
Farrow and director Woody Allen, he has come to the defense of his father against a sexual abuse allegation. Moses Amadeus Farrow was born in South Korea...
was eventually released. Her case helped garner legitimacy for the abusedefense, a concept virtually unknown at the time in criminal cases. The case...
(Spring 1998). "Survival of the Common Law Abuse of Process Tort in the Face of a Noerr-Pennington Defense". University of Chicago Law Review. 65 (2)...
former soldier who was court-martialed for prisoner abuse after the 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Along with other soldiers of his Army Reserve...
The Turpin case involved the abuse of children and dependent adults by their parents, David and Louise Turpin of Perris, California, U.S. The ages of...
prevent and detect fraud and abuse in, such programs and operations. Provide a means for keeping the Secretary of Defense and the Congress fully and currently...
Rigas's defense asserted that he expected the Adelphia board, lawyers, and external accountants to provide him warning of any possible abuse. In his closing...
Jackson's death, one of the defense witnesses, Wade Robson, changed his position and filed a lawsuit, saying he had been abused by Jackson. Jurors of the...
Goldberg's Biography". Goodman, Walter (1994-05-26). "Examining The AbuseDefense In Trials". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-27. Goodman, Walter...
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; Hebrew: צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל Tsva ha-Hagana le-Yisra'el, lit. 'The Army of the Defense for Israel'), alternatively...
accounts of abuse with the agency leadership, prompting DIA Director Lowell Jacoby to write a memo on this topic to the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence...
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