er partner and the cycle of violence repeats again (Dubin pg. 9).Dr. Walker's research paved the way for a wider acceptance of BWS, and brought a new level of clarity to the courtrooms that were dealing with this complex syndrome. In 1979, Dr. Walker produced important testimony in the case of Ibn-Tamas v. U.S. This federal appellate court, located in the District of Columbia, was the first to hear testimony on Battered Women's Syndrome. The appellate court remanded the case to a lower court, deciding that BWS had to be considered if it could help explain the defendant's perception of danger. Although the lower court did not admit BWS testimony, the appellate court's decision provided the first step for accepting the syndrome in future cases (Downs pg. 77).Dr. Walker released her book The Battered Woman in 1979 and continued to conduct her research on battered women. Although much progress was made during the late 1970's, BWS was still given little support in the courts during the early 1980's. In the 1981 case of Buhrle v. Wyoming, the Supreme Court of Wyoming held that the BWS concept was inadmissible in court. The reasons given by the court for the holding were that BWS was not a developed theory at that time, and it attracted female advocates who were interested turning a profit for their services (Downs pg. 77). Even though BWS advocates made great advancements to get the syndrome into the courthouse, they had failed to keep it inside the courtroom. The research done by psychologists during the 1970's, and early 1980's, showed an increasing number of women who suffered from BWS. Although domestic abuse in America was an issue during this time period, it was not given much attention by the government. Once the FBI began to look at their data more closely, they saw a startling number of spousal murders occurring in the U.S. In 1984, spousal abuse caused the deaths of some 1,300 women. The number rose to 1,530 in 1993...
