Citation

Kirkwood D. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Criminol. 2003; 36(2): 152-172.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1375/acri.36.2.152

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article presents findings of research on women who kill. All cases in which a woman was investigated by police as a perpetrator in a homicide in Victoria,Australia,between 1985 and 1995 were examined.The aim was to investigate the range of circumstances in which women kill. Seventy-seven cases were identified.The primary source of data was the Victorian Coroner 's office.Initially it was expected that most women would have killed a partner as a result of the experience of long-term violence. However,the findings of the study show that the situation with respect to women and those they kill is more complex.Three primary relationship categories were identified:women who kill their partners,women who kill their children and women who kill non-intimates.The third category primar- ily involved women who killed friends and acquaintances.This paper will argue that the homicide literature fails to provide a conceptual framework for understanding women who kill and hence contributes to the cultural stigmatising of violent women as “mad” or “bad”.