Dissociation and Complex Trauma in Intimate Partner Violence: A Homicide Case Study

Abstract
This case study presentation will illuminate lessons learned from serving in the role of expert witness in cases involving an important and neglected population: intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors incarcerated for offenses they committed as a result of their IPV-related psychological trauma. Often, these survivors contend with severe mental health consequences as a result of polyvictimization and other traumatic experiences, including dissociative symptoms and complex PTSD. Yet, these trauma symptoms are often discredited or ignored at the moment of sentencing. To address these harms, the Domestic Violence Survivors’ Justice Act (DVSJA) was passed in 2019 in New York state. This is a landmark piece of legislation that allows survivors to seek sentencing relief if their offenses can be directly connected to their victimization. It marks a cultural shift in how violence perpetration is perceived, emphasizing the need for expert witnesses to speak to cycles of violence, as well as the consequences of complex trauma and dissociation, during criminal legal processes.

In this presentation, we will discuss the experience of one incarcerated woman convicted of killing her partner, illuminating the clinical and ethical dimensions of this work. We interviewed the client for 12 hours as part of our roles as expert witnesses aiming to bring a psychological lens to her experience. Based on this extensive interview process, we will describe the client’s own partial memories of the night as well as our conceptualization of her experience. The client remembered feeling extreme terror the night her partner was killed, but had no memory of the events surrounding his death. Her recollection of what happened that night also changed at different moments (e.g., in each of the police interviews, during the psychological evaluations, in our interview with her). Thus, in the court’s eyes, her testimony lacked credibility. This presentation will highlight the roles of complex trauma and dissociation—both of which figure prominently in this case—in the client’s experiences of and responses to IPV, and in the court’s response to her. The presentation will cover: (1) how childhood trauma and IPV lead to the development of several distinct types of dissociative responses as coping strategies; (2) the relationship between dissociation and the client’s lack of recollection of the offense; (3) how dissociation generally complicates survivors’ experiences with the criminal legal system; and (4) the ethical implications of interviewing survivors with dissociative symptoms.