Recent Trends in Explaining Abuse within Intimate Relationships
| Author | Philip Stevens |
| Published date | 01 April 2014 |
| Date | 01 April 2014 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1350/jcla.2014.78.2.910 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
184
Recent Trends in Explaining
Abuse within Intimate
Relationships
Philip Stevens*
Abstract This article reflects upon abuse within intimate relationships with
specific emphasis on research pertaining to the phenomena of coercive
control, Stockholm syndrome and the compliant victim of the sexual sadist,
advanced in order to explain the non-physical aspects of abuse within
intimate relationships. The battered woman syndrome is accordingly
revisited with specific emphasis on the non-visible aspects of abuse within
intimate relationships which are often underestimated and overlooked. The
latter is illustrated against the backdrop of the controversial South African
case of S v Visser which was the first South African criminal case where these
theories were addressed.
Keywords Stockholm syndrome; Coercive control; Intimate abuse;
Battered woman syndrome; Sexual sadist
Abuse within intimate relationships has been a phenomenon since time
immemorial. Domestic abuse is most frequently typified in terms of the
physical manifestations of abuse. As such the general approach followed
in terms of the assessment of abuse is that of an incident-specific approach
in which the severity of abuse is measured against the level of force or
amount of injuries inflicted. More often than not, the psychological and,
concomitantly, the emotional impact and manifestations of abuse are
overlooked.
The reality, however, is that a domestic assault is often part of a much
larger system of controlling, coercing, intimidating and violent behaviours
employed by an abusive partner to control the victim. Such abuse within
the intimate sphere comprises a much wider purport than merely the
physical manifestation thereof, if this exists.
This article provides a prelude to the fairly novel phenomena of coercive
control, the Stockholm syndrome and the compliant victim of the sexual
sadist as alternative approaches towards assessing abuse within intimate
relationships and the subsequent impact on the victim who either retreats
towards the abuser or commits other criminal offences as a result of the
abusive relationship. The latter phenomena will be addressed against the
backdrop of the trial of Cézanne Visser in South Africa in 2009.1
* LLB, LLM, LLD, Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law, Department of Public Law, University
of Pretoria, South Africa, Associate member of the Pretoria Bar; e-mail: philip.stevens@
up.ac.za.
1 S v Visser Case Number CC 545/07, unreported, October 2009, also referred to as the
Barbie trial. In 2009 the highly controversial Visser case resumed de novo before Eksteen
AJ in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. Cézanne Visser, known to South
The Journal of Criminal Law (2014) 78 JCL 184–193
doi:10.1350/jcla.2014.78.2.910
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