I believe that in our society women are held to different more lenient standards then men, mainly because they are viewed as nurturers, caretakers and the thought of them being violent and evil is not something that society is ready to accept. Women have been killing their husbands for centuries, as we see in Lisa Downing’s, Murder in the Feminine article, where she talks about several women who committed murder such as, Marie Lafarge and Marie Fortune. I believe there are gender biases in the judicial system, when a man kills someone or commits some sort of violent, heinous crime he is made out to be a monster, a person who must be removed from society immediately, sometimes even by execution. If a women were to commit the same crime, she would not be labeled a monster by all right away, people would begin to examine the reasons why she committed the crime. No one wants to come out and flat out say she’s a violent murdered who should be executed for her crimes! People start to attribute her acts to her childhood, various forms of abuse she suffered, and things like that, while trying to circumvent the fact that she in fact did commit this crime. In the clip that I am going to show, How likely are women to commit violent acts an expert criminal intelligence analyst goes to say, what I already believe, which is that there are plenty of women out there who can kill, steal, shoot, gang bang, sell drugs, and commit any violent and brutal act as well if not better then any man could and I feel they should be prosecuted equally and accordingly.
You are correct that society and the media view and portray differently male and female murderers. You are also very correct that when a woman commits murder, particularly against her child or husband, the media and the people demand to know “WHY?!”. Downing’s article points out that the media’s obsession with why a woman committed a crime is a form of hysteria!
For Casey Anthony and other women accused of murdering their children, the media obviously wants to know why a mother would kill her own child. Of course the thought of a mother killing her own child is very disturbing, so it is not uncommon to wonder why mothers would do this. What disturbs me is when the media accuses women who do not want to be mothers as bad women. Of course one of society’s ever-present gender roles for women is their maternal instinct. For many women, such as my grandmother, being a mother and a grandmother was one of the most fulfilling roles in her life, as was being a devoted wife to her husband. But not all women want to be wives and mothers, even though this is the traditional role for women in Western society. And this is what should be kept in mind when analyzing a case where a woman murders her family members. Just because there is a societal expectation for women to be maternal DOES NOT MAKE IT SO. So women should not be judged if they do not want to get married or give birth. That decision is theirs, not society’s, to make.
I disagree that women’s sentences are more lenient when it comes to child murder. I’ve read the opposite is true, that women get the longer sentences while men who murder their children get lighter sentences. This is due to gender expectations placed on the woman to be a caring mother. I have also heard of accounts where corrections officers treat female murderers more harshly than male murderers, because they judge the female murderers on the basis of gender roles.
– Kelly Reznick