Historically, there has been a gender bias in the legal system, this bias was present when the debtors prisons existed, and husbands were gaoled for the debts of their wives of course this applied to the more genteel classe and not the working class.

The prevailing view was that women were the weaker sex and as a result when male and female teams committed crimes, it was the male who got the harsher sentence, because the prevailing view was that she was under his corrupting influence.

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gender.jsp

Makes for some interesting reading.

Yes, welcome back Antiseptic...
All the other boys can just step back now and let the alpha male take over :)

JamesH, I believe that for any woman to be let off murdering a violent husband, there has to be a quite substantial body of proven photographic evidence of severe violence against her by him over a long period of time.

I have no doubt that if the same conditions were found with some of the battered men mentioned in this thread, and they killed their violent wife in self defence, they too would get off...

Suzeonline:"All the other boys can just step back now and let the alpha male take over :)"

And all the girls can stand around in a circle telling each other how mean he is...

Care to have a go at the point I made above, dear, or are you waiting for Ammonite to tell you what to think?

Suzeonline:"I have no doubt that if the same conditions were found with some of the battered men mentioned in this thread, and they killed their violent wife in self defence, they too would get off.."

Actually, the defence of provocation is no longer available to men who kill their spouse. On the other hand "battered wife syndrome" is a standard defence for women who kill their spouse and/or kids, usually followed by some claim of mental illness and a demand to be given a bex and a nice lie down. Funnily enough, men seem immune to mental illness of this nature, since such a defence is rarely accepted.

I guess blokes are just mentally better-equipped...

James, interesting link. I wonder when Feminism is going to address the obvious failure of the Courts to treat women as fully equal to men in matters of personal liability? It's an insult to women!

LOL Anti,

Here is a link to a story. But beware it is not for the squeamish.

http://thomasjamesball.com/index.html

James, that's a tragedy and a real indictment on the system that has evolved. No compromise means there has to be a winner and a loser and as he points out, there are no winners at all except the parasites who infest the misery-milking industries.

There's brass in muck as the old Yorkshire saying goes and there's money in misery.

The thing I feel that is the saddest, is it would not matter how many men die in such a fashion, or by other methods. Nothing will change.

Yet as recent examples show where a child or woman dies at the hands of a male, there is this huge hue and cry for tougher penalties, tougher laws.

Take a look at this
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/editorials/we-must-not-forget-julie/story-e6frfhqo-1226090277253

Whilst I do not agree with murder, this man has been punished, served his time, yet as this link shows

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-accused-20110628,0,4711694,full.story

Some women can commit the most horrendous acts and never be charged for the things that they do.

Mind you this shows a huge media bias, where the media will saturate us with certain types of stories and totally ignore other types of stories