When women kill: an exploration of scenarios of lethal self-help in Australia 1989-2000

© 2003 Dr. Jenny Dimitra MouzosMost homicide research in Australia and elsewhere has focused predominantly on homicides committed by men, neglecting to examine in any depth those perpetrated by women. Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of data collected as part of the National Homicide Monitoring Program this thesis addresses this gap in knowledge through an examination of female-perpetrated homicide in Australia between 1 July 1989 and 30 June 2000. The main research aims were fourfold: to identify the differences and similarities between male and female-perpetrated homicides in Australia; to examine in-depth the circumstances and characteristics of the scenarios where women kill; to assess the relative utility of Donald Black's (1983; 1998) self-help model in explaining why some women need to resort to informal social control, specifically lethal self-help; and to discuss avenues for policy formation in the prevention of female-perpetrated homicide. The most significant findings arising from the research are that women kill in a diverse range of circumstances, and that just one scenario can not adequately capture the phenomenon. For example, women kill to protect themselves from being physically or sexually assaulted; they kill during delusional episodes; they kill out of jealousy or in a fit of rage; and they kill whilst significantly affected by alcohol. They also kill whilst acting on their own volition or whilst acting under the instructions of a male counterpart. However, there was one common thread that linked many of the women offenders examined in this study, irrespective of who they killed: many had suffered adversity and low social status. While low social status predicts that women would be more likely to resort to lethal self-help, not all homicides by women were acts of self-help. Black's self-help theory, as it stands, requires further expansion and elaboration if it is to extend to a wider breadth of women who kill. Since violence is gendered and the homicides committed by women and men differ in important respects, any theory attempting to explain homicides by women needs to account for the gender disparity. Theory needs to recognise that we are all positioned differently in the social, economic, political and cultural spheres of society and that the act of homicide ultimately represents the quality of the lives of the women who kill. Prevention therefore needs to focus on the underlying structural and gender inequalities of women in Australia and improving their lives