I accept this, but I also note that it is also possible already of course to give quite low sentences for murder. To promote manslaughter as a charge applicable to someone who has premeditated the killing of their partner seems somewhat pointless to me given the difference in terms to be served, unless women that kill after planning to are ultimately to be rewarded with their actions by being sentenced for no longer than those that did “just snap”.

“Lee, what I meant by my previous post is that I don’t think it is assumed that not seeking outside help is ok or personal choice – it’s just a reality we have to deal with.”

The way I meant what I said above is that essentially this move is one that admits defeat on that front. Like you say, we have to deal with it, and the supposedly most intelligent people on this matter can come up with nothing better so this is it. Deal with those that we can’t reach as a statistical ambiguity that can’t be helped, and instead give them the comfort of a couple of years off their sentence. It’s almost like some kind of guilt thing, we’ve not helped these women so the lease we can do is shave their sentences down, do we then feel better about ourselves as a society?

“I’m not sure there are any polices we can create to solve the problem of women being in so much fear that they cannot seek outside help.”

Tackling the reasons why women get in to situations where they believe with all of their heart and mind that no-one is there to help would be a start. Removing from the equation women that are abused only the once or are unfortunately murdered in a fit of rage or similar, is there a profile of women that enter an abusive relationship knowingly or unknowingly and refuse to talk to anyone about it? Is there any research there, any study? Are these women all perfectly happy sociable and strong independent types that are beaten down by their partners, or are they in themselves emotionally insecure, perhaps suffered from abuse as a child…do we actually know any of the common traits of an abused person in an abusive relationship that we can be trying to combat before relationships even start to become a factor for that person?

I’m not sure there are any polices we can create to solve the problem of women being in so much fear that they cannot seek outside help. We can only do our best – now, perhaps this isn’t being done – to make sure that they know there is outside help and that it is effective. But there will always be some who we cannot help.

Person’s announcement isn’t even a good plaster – it is about political expediency not justice, as you can tell from the manner of the announcement, who it was announced by, and its content.

For me the bigger issue, which is what I said above, is that it kind of assumes there is no other “out” for the person. Now if someone was abused, tried to get it sorted through the police, social services, whatever, and the state failed and it resulted in the murder of someone I could completely understand….but this kind of stance assumes that people won’t do that (or that the services don’t help enough), and this is in itself a problem, both to assume that people not wishing to go for help is O.K and purely a choice,

No, it’s simply a fact that some people feel they cannot seek outside help or they fear the consequences of doing so.

I don’t know, my brain is muddled, but it is once again an arse about face way of solving a problem which I’ve come to expect from all parties now.

Who is? There might be an element of deterrence, but mostly its about justice.

QT – erm, there are already distinctions between ‘murder’ anyway, for example manslaughter, pre-meditated murder and all the rest of it.

The ‘good enough excuse’ in this case is a serious amount of abuse that will make sure the other person is in a very precarious emotional state. Its not exactly the same as a contract killing on someone and the law should accordingly treat it differently.