Tag Archives: female murderer

Gender Roles Influence Punishment

“Murder in the Feminine” by Lisa Downing is important because it shows us how 19th century perceptions of the female murderer have carried on into modern times. Then and now, accepted social behaviors for men are very different than for women. Debates over what is acceptable for female behavior are generated from popular cases of female murderers, such as the Casey Anthony trial. In the reading, the Casey Anthony of 19th century France was Marie Lafarge, who was demonized for poisoning her husband. In Lafarge’s time, passivity, submissiveness, and maternal instinct were considered to be highly feminine virtues. Naturally, some found it difficult to reconcile society’s perceptions of feminine nature with Lafarge’s cold-blooded and calculated act. In fact, Edith Saunders’s “The Mystery of Marie Lafarge” contained the following:

” ‘I was, at first, very much predisposed to believe her innocent. The cold-blooded murder seemed so impossible an act for the charming, cultured girl to have performed…’ ” (Downing, 124).

Therefore, female murderers such as Lafarge posed a threat to society’s gender expectations and the social order. The social order was particularly threatened by female child- and husband-killers. Note that the following quote could also apply to women who kill their children:

“The husband-killer in particular occupied a special place in such taxonomies of aberration. The woman who killed her husband from the very seat of the prescribed feminine domain of domesticity threatened the social order from within” (Downing, 125).

Because of the contradictions they inflicted upon male dominated societal gender roles, female murders were portrayed as the most deviant of human monsters by 19th century criminologists.

In 2009, Rekha Kumari-Baker was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years for the premeditated murder of her two children, one of the longest prison sentences ever handed to a woman in England! And, the jury only took 35 minutes to reach the verdict! The judge’s words on the case also clearly displayed sexism and society’s expectations for women’s behavior. Note his singling out of mothers. Shouldn’t the judge find it inexcusable that a PARENT could kill their child, not just mothers?

In sentencing, the judge said: “Most people will find it inexplicable that a mother (my emphasis on mother, not the article’s) could kill her own children, and you have given no explanation for it.” He is right, but does it not also seem that we unconsciously accept crimes of this nature that men commit but reserve a special sort of hatred for women?

The article cites previous cases of paternal filicide where the sentences for the father child-killers were either reduced or prosecution was abandoned altogether in lieu of psychiatric treatment! What is amazing is that Kumari-Baker had been treated for depression, yet this was rejected by the jury to be a defense to diminished responsibility.

The article states one way in which society may view a man killing his children:

“As in this case, where men kill their children, no thought for the children as humans is given whatsoever – they are mere cannon fodder in a scheme to extract revenge. Some men kill their children and then themselves if they are depressed and feel hopeless, usually if the mother of the children has left him. Whatever the reasons, entitlement and control are generally at the forefront, along with rage, jealousy, revenge and hatred.”

Then the author juxtaposes this to how mothers who murder their children are viewed:

“The general view on these matters seems to be that men can’t help themselves, but women can. Women are expected to love and care for their children above all else, whereas men can be distant and even cruel but still considered “good enough” fathers.”

While the author and I feel no sympathy for this woman who murdered her innocent children, we would both like to see fathers and mothers who kill their children get similar sentences, and not reserve the lengthier sentences for females due to society’s perceptions of what gender roles should be.

– Kelly Reznick

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/24/rekha-kumari-baker-sentencing

Posted in Assignment 2 | Tagged , , | 53 Comments

Are women more guilty then we’d like to believe?

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.

 

Posted in Assignment 2 | Tagged , , , | 111 Comments

Criminal or Victim?

http://www.dvmen.org/dv-136.htm

This article by Glenn Sacks points out how common infanticide is and that it is usually the mother who murders the infant. It also says that about two-thirds of the women who have been convicted for the murder of their newborn don’t do any jail time at all. Sacks also gives an interesting statistic which is that “A man convicted of murder is 20 times more likely to receive the death penalty than a woman.” Sacks poses the question “why do women get away with murder?”

Well according to crime journalist Patricia Pearson, society tends to view and treat violent women as a child, insane or victim who is worthy of sympathy. This comment reminded me of Lombroso who says that women are a lot like children. He said that women are jealous, have low moral sense and feel they must take revenge. Pearson believes the leniency towards women in the court system is due to “male judges and law enforcement personnel and men in the media who don’t take women’s capacity for violence seriously and tend to make excuses for, and cover up for, violent women.” I believe men in general are more lenient and sympathetic to women because they do not understand them so they tend to sympathize with women. Just like a father is more sympathetic to his daughter and harder on his son.

Pearson also says something very interesting which is that women are clever and successful at flipping the script, turning themselves from a criminal into a victim. They blame things like PMS, postpartum depression and battered wife syndrome. This also reminded me of Lombroso who said that women denied committing crimes because that would mean the female recognizes herself and identifies herself as a monster. Lombroso says it is ontologically impossible for a woman to assume this type of identity. Maybe Lombroso was right here.

The recent Casey Anthony case is a good example of this victimizing of the female criminal. Whether true of not, Casey Anthony and her defense team claimed that both her father and brother sexually abused her. This played with people’s minds, the jurors in particular and it turned from Casey being the murderer of her daughter to the poor victim who has been sexually abused and needs some sympathy. People couldn’t understand her narcissistic and odd behavior so it was very convincing to many that she was an abused victim. Its clear by the not guilty verdict that the trick of turning the tables and making oneself the victim worked for Casey Anthony.

The Casey Anthony case drew a lot of attention from around the world. The media was all over the case 24/7. I mean people were truly obsessed with this case. People just cannot wrap their minds around the idea that a young beautiful “normal” girl like Casey Anthony could have murdered her 3 year old daughter.

Female murderers always draw a lot of of attention to the media. I think its easiest for society to believe that the female murderer is a victim and suffers from some type of hysteria because it is otherwise intrinsically unnatural and frightening. It is just inconceivable to the human mind that the most loving and nurturing, the woman, the mother who bears life can also take it away.

Posted in Assignment 2 | Tagged , , | 14 Comments