NCJ Number
234136
Journal
Forensic Examiner Volume: 19 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 2010 Pages: 50-67
Date Published
2010
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article examines some of the misperceptions about female criminality, reviews current research on female psychopathy, and presents case studies of female psychopathic killers.
Abstract
When women act violently, the only explanations frequently offered have been that it is either involuntary, self-defense, the result of mental illness, or hormonal imbalances inherent in female physiology. This article's review of relevant research, however, shows that homicides committed by women stem from diverse motives, including the offender's psychopathic traits that spawn a motive for the homicide. Psychopathy is most strongly correlated to the DSM-IV's (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders') antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Psychopathy is considered a subset of ASPD because the behavioral traits of a psychopath are more severe in terms of lack of consciousness, callousness, and remorselessness. Those who have psychopathic traits are more at risk for committing crime and behaving violently. This article argues that the underlying behavioral traits of psychopaths are gender neutral, even though the methods and motives for killing may at times be gender-specific. In supporting their position that motives to kill are diverse and that some female killers exhibit psychopathic traits, the authors' present case studies of female killers that involve Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, fraud-detection homicide, kill teams, female serial killers, and cesarean-section homicide. In addition, the authors examine how the criminal justice system reflects myths about female killers in the course of homicide trials with female defendants. In concluding comments, the authors caution forensic examiners and law enforcement personnel to avoid acting on misconceptions of gender-based violence when interacting with female psychopaths. 77 references