Women Who Kill

[Allen]

I found alot of information about women who kill in this book I've been reading. I named the book in another thread, but for those who haven't read that particular thread, the book is called The New Predator: Woman Who Kill: Profiles of Female Serial Killers. by Dr. Deborah Schurman- Kauflin. Though the book is about serial killers, it does talk about what motivates a woman to kill, and it also contains information about women who only kill one time. I could not type the whole section from the book out, but I did include the parts I thought were relevant to this particular case. How much of this do you all think would describe Miss Lizzie Borden and the murders of Abby and Andrew?


Though there has been considerably less study on females, the research that has been done on solo female killers has demonstrated a strong connection between gender roles in society and how women carry out a murder. For instance, it has been suggested that women have been more likely to kill a powerless victim-- to murder a victim while the victim was not able to defend him or herself. This proposed what is known as "soft killings" such as using poison, smothering, or suffocation rather than hands on, brute force type homicides. Societal expectations suggest that women are less violent then men, and typically are less experienced with weapons.

Females who kill one time kill close to home; that is, women kill family members. Furthermore, women tend to kill within the home itself. In fact studies have shown that 80% of those who fall victim to a female killer are intimately known to her. The portrait then is a woman who strikes close in range. She is less likely than a male to roam the streets and kill a stranger, her victims will be close emotionally and physically.

"When a woman in this position (abuse victim and economical deficiency) considers committing homicide, she does the same things that male multiple murderers would do. She objectifies the victim, viewing this person as an object or thing instead of a human being. Her word choice when discussing her victim reflects this thought pattern in that she will refer to her husband as "him" or the child as "it".The woman then rationalizes the murder that is going to occur by telling herself: it is the only way to end her suffering. She then fantasizes about the killing, how it will be done, and what will take place upon the death. Though she lives with the violence in her mind, prior to the homicide the female is not likely to strike back physically during an abusive episode; she internalizes instead. This factor is very important as it combines with gender role expectation. Women are not supposed to be confrontational and violent. They are expected to be maternal and feminine."

"When a female lacks resources, she can feel trapped and helpless to remove herself from the situation, When trapped, desperation can impact decision- making, and it is here that females are most prone to kill.

"Specifically women are taught to turn their anger inward instead of striking out, and this analogues to what Megargee described as the over- controlled personality. This over controlled personality is one who does not act out for a long time, but then, in one violent episode, this person will seemingly erupt with profound levels of violence. This fits closely with what is known about women who kill."

"It is significant that a woman would choose to kill those intimately known to her. Her family defines who she is, so when she kills them, she is killing her own identity. When she kills, a woman does not like who she has become. Through the killing, she wishes to restore happiness ( or at least the illusion of happiness) that apparently was troubling her.

This is logical, in a way, since women often kill in an "explosion", and their victims are typically family members. Researchers have also found that women who kill are older than their male counterparts.Males who kill are usually young, ranging from late teens to early 20's.Female killers , on the other hand,have an age range of late 20's to early 30's. This lends credibility to the view that women let anger simmer for long periods of time before they kill. The aforementioned characteristics comprise the solo killer, but such research has not been conducted effectively with females who kill more than one person.

[Kat]

Thanks for the extensive info. It's interesting that it correlates somewhat with the Kids Who Kill Parents theories.

This does specify, tho, that women kill at an older age than men, which I believe-- but in research of girls who kill their parents, the age lowers back down averaging to teen-ager.

[Allen]

Thanks for the extensive info. It's interesting that it correlates somewhat with the Kids Who Kill Parents theories.

This does specify, tho, that women kill at an older age than men, which I believe-- but in research of girls who kill their parents, the age lowers back down averaging to teen-ager.

Maybe the fact of their emotional under- development comes into play when it comes to how long she waited to kill them. And when they do these studies, they are studying the norms. It's like taking all the data and adding it up, and then dividing it to get the mean. But there are things that happen outside of the norm.