Full Description
Women rarely kill. How and why a woman can be driven to lethal action is often highly complex and misunderstood. Many of these women who act lethally are driven to such a point as a last resort following prolonged experiences of child abuse and/or domestic violence. This book offers insights into these women, detailing their motivations, their patterns of violence, and how they can be aided through psychological evaluation and proper expert testimony. The chapters in this volume also include discussions of women who did not kill but were punished as if they had. This collection of writings seeks to fill the gaps in research on women who kill.
This book is beneficial to students and researchers of Psychology including Forensic Psychology. It will further aid the field of criminal justice as well as policymakers such that clinicians can provide an enhanced understanding on various psychological and demographic factors which contribute to situations where battered women reach a point where the only option to ensure survival is lethal self-defense. Finally, this book offers clarity as it points out the areas in which the legal system has failed these women.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.
Contents
Introduction - Women Who Kill, Intimate Partner Violence, and Forensic Psychology 1. Common Characteristics of Women Who Kill In the Context of Abuse: A Content Analysis of Case Files 2. Maternal Filicide: A Review of Psychological and External Demographic Risk Factors 3. The Mediating Effect of Traditional Gender Beliefs on the Relationship between Gender Disparities and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration 4. Cognitive Reappraisal as a Protective Factor in the Association between Cyber Intimate Partner Victimization and Depression in Hispanic Emerging Adults 5. Does Power at Home Protect Women from Violence? A Comparative Analysis between Urban and Rural Colombian Women 6. An Exploratory Study of "No-Crime" Homicide Cases Among Female Exonerees 7. Parental Grief, Wrongful Incarceration, and the Continued Effects after Exoneration 8. Psychological Testing in Forensic Evaluations of Battered Women Who Kill 9. Psychological Evaluation of Battered Women Who Kill in Self-Defense: A Review of 34 Cases 10. Litigation Consultation in Cases of Women Who Kill 11. Battered Women Charged with Homicide: Expert Consultation, Evaluation, and Testimony 12. Examining Trauma Symptoms and Interpersonal Dependency within Incarcerated Psychopathic and Non-psychopathic Women 13. Resilience Building Programs in U.S. Corrections Facilities: An Evaluation of Trauma-Informed Practices in Place 14. "We're Still Human": A Reproductive Justice Analysis of the Experiences of Criminalized Latina Mothers
