FitzRoy, L: ‘Violent Women‘?

Dr. FitzRoy examined women s use of violence in Victoria, Australia, focusing on the experiences of 7 women who disclosed that they had perpetrated serious indictable crimes. The crimes included murder, accessory to murder after the fact, manslaughter, child sexual and physical assaults, grievous bodily harm, stalking and threats to kill. The study also analyses the experiences and advice from 120 workers along with relevant sentencing comments. Dr FitzRoy concluded that all of us have the potential to seriously assault others. Drawing on a feminist analysis of male violence, the study suggests that women s, like men s, violence is also individually willed and socially constructed‘. The challenge for broader society, is not to pathologise and blame individual women for their use of violence, but to hear and see such violence, respond appropriately to protect vulnerable victims, and deconstruct longheld myths, beliefs and ideologies that underpin oppressive social, cultural and familial power relations between men, women and children.