Sentencing Aboriginal women who have killed their partners: do we really hear them?

Drawing on 12 legal cases where Aboriginal women had killed their abusive male partners, this chapter reflects on whether the practice of law really hears women’s narratives of domestic violence. It explores the available defenses to homicide in New South Wales, Australia, and reviews how the practices of law and legal personnel hear or fail to hear women’s narratives of abuse. This chapter also explores the outcomes for Aboriginal women when the law fails to hear their experiences of abuse. This chapter concludes that while the legal system has developed the capacity to understand and explain the nuance of the circumstances reflected in the cases and introduced and developed a range of legal defenses that can potentially mitigate sentences for women who kill violent men, available evidence suggests that for some they can be ineffectual in practice.