In Western countries, surging feminist movements and the development of feminist theories have con- duced to arousing female' s slumbering mind and self-consciousness, and as a result, many females have now turned their attention to the domain of domestic violence. Alongside with the progress in medical jurisprudence, the theory of Battered Woman Syndrome has been invoked to protect the rights of women in judicial practices. This the- ory is of some referential value to Chinese judicial practices in that it provides us with a renewed perspective on Chi- nese legislation that are chiefly based on male values. In the concrete, this theory also provides the theoretical sup- port for such provisions in Chinese criminal laws as "criminal cases involving justifiable homicide committed by fe- male offenders because of constant and severe domestic violence usually involving physical abuse may take account of a lesser punishment or a mitigated punishment to be imposed". Meanwhile, where there appear disagreements on penalty imposition across different levels of courts in China regarding such cases or pertaining to mitigating circum- stances, the Supreme People' s Court of China is supposed to issue guiding principles through various means to ho- mogenize the adjudication of such cases.%在西方国家，女性主义的运动以及理论的发展不断地唤起女性沉睡的意识，女性逐渐将目光转向家庭暴力领域，加上法医学的进步，受虐妇女综合症成为女性权益在法律方面的“护花使者”。此理论对中国有一定借鉴价值，我们可以在宏观层面上对一些以男性价值观为主导的立法加以重新审视。而在具体层面上，该理论可以为中国刑事法律中增加规定“因长期受暴而被迫伤害，杀害施暴人的犯罪是法定从轻、减轻处罚情节”提供理论依据。同时，对各地法院面对此类案件与酌定情节从轻判判断中，出现裁判不一的情况，最高法院可通过各种途径发布指导性案例，解决此类案件裁判相差悬殊的问题。
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