Short answer. Both. Battered woman syndrome, once found by the court, removes civil liability as well as criminal. Section 26 of RA 9262 says victim-survivors found to be suffering from it do not incur any criminal and civil liability, even absent the elements of self-defense under the Revised Penal Code.
What the law says
Victim-survivors who are found by the courts to be suffering from battered woman syndrome do not incur any criminal and civil liability notwithstanding the absence of any of the elements for justifying circumstances of self-defense under the Revised Penal Code.
RA 9262, Section 26 — Battered Woman Syndrome Defense. Read the full provision →
The defense reaches civil liability too
A person acquitted of a crime is often still made to pay civil damages, because civil and criminal liability are separate. Section 26 of Republic Act No. 9262 departs from that pattern. A victim-survivor found by the court to be suffering from battered woman syndrome does not incur any criminal and civil liability. The statute joins the two words deliberately — criminal and civil — so the defense does not merely spare the woman from imprisonment; it also relieves her of the civil liability that would ordinarily follow. The relief is complete, covering both sides of the responsibility that a harmful act usually generates.
Why it works without the usual self-defense elements
Ordinarily, a claim of self-defense must satisfy strict elements, including unlawful aggression happening at the very moment of the act. A battered woman often strikes during a lull rather than at the peak of an attack, which can make classic self-defense hard to prove. Section 26 addresses this by declaring that the defense applies notwithstanding the absence of any of the elements for justifying circumstances of self-defense under the Revised Penal Code. The law accepts the psychological reality of the abuse cycle and does not require the woman to fit the rigid template built for a single, isolated confrontation.
It has to be established in court
The relief is not automatic on a bare claim. The syndrome must be found by the courts, and the section provides that in determining the woman's state of mind the courts shall be assisted by expert psychiatrists or psychologists. So the defense rests on evidence — expert evaluation showing that the accused genuinely suffered battered woman syndrome at the time of the act. Until a court makes that finding, the ordinary rules on liability apply. The defense is powerful precisely because it is anchored to a judicial finding supported by qualified expert opinion, not to assertion alone.
What this means for those affected
For an abused woman accused after acting against her abuser, the significance is large: a successful battered woman syndrome defense can leave her free of both a criminal penalty and a damages award. For her, the practical task is building the expert and factual record the court needs to make the required finding. The defense is specific to this statutory context and to the syndrome itself; it is not a general excuse for violence, and its reach depends entirely on the court being persuaded, with expert help, that the syndrome was present.