When Women Kill

A fascinating profile of female homicide offenders emerges from this analysis of the characteristics of women murderers in six cities in the United States, including the circumstances of the murders, the role of the victims, the role of the perpetrators, and their fates in court.

The volume explores every aspect of females who murdered-from arrest through sentencing-and provides descriptions of ecological and other circumstances of the murders, the victims, the motives of the perpetrators, and their fates in court. The generous utilization of case examples dramatically reveals the homicide scenarios.

This exploratory, descriptive study compares 296 females arrested for homicide in six urban areas-Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City-in 1979 and 1983. During field trips to these cities, which have the highest murder rates in the country, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from police files, homicide records, F. B. I. reports, and criminal court information. Research analyses reveals a fascinating profile of today's female murderer. When Women Kill presents a comprehensive, yet highly readable, overview of this previously neglected subgroup of homicide offenders.

Coramae Richey Mann is Professor of Criminal Justice at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the author of two books, Female Crime and Delinquency and Unequal Justice: A Question of Color. Mann is the recipient of the 1995 Bruce Smith Sr. award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.