School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemThe social context of femicide in Victoria( 2005-10)Femicide, homicide involving female victims, accounts for approximately one third of all homicides in Australia. Despite its prevalence, femicide has received considerably less theoretical attention than the more common male-on-male homicide. The current study uses qualitative data from the Coroner’s brief of evidence to examine the social context of homicides which occurred between 1994 and 1998 in Victoria, Australia. All homicides for which data were available that included a female victim were included in the study, resulting in a total of 67 victims. Six social contexts of femicide were identified through the cases. Intimate femicide (22 cases, 33% of the sample) involved female victims who were killed by their intimate partner in a relationship characterised by jealousy, possessiveness and violence. These intimate femicides were usually not spontaneous acts of rage, but planned and purposive attacks, and often occurred around separation. Intimate homicide-suicides (9 cases, 13%) shared many of the characteristics of intimate femicide, but in addition to being possessive and violent, the offender was notably depressed, often due to financial problems.
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Item"You can't let your children cry": filicide in Victoria 1978-1988( 1991)Child killers, particularly when the perpetrators are the victims' parents, are stereotypically portrayed as "evil" or "crazy" (Wilson,1985:6). Who other than the "mad" or the very "bad" could slaughter their "innocent" offspring? But are these offenders really so aberrant? The social perception of, and response to, these offenders is largely determined by the offenders' sex. In fact, biological determinism is particularly profound in this area. This is a qualitative study of all officially suspected cases of filicide in Victoria between 1978 and 1988. "Filicide" is a particular type of homicide where parents kill their children. The major focus is a gender analysis. In order to identify the relevant issues, and assess the results of this study with other research in this area, a review of the existing literature is necessary. Contemporary official statistics portray filicide as constituting a relatively small proportion of all homicide in Western societies. This ranges from five percent in North America (Resnick,1969:325;Husain & Daniel,1984:596) to ten percent in England (Campion, Cravens & Covan,1988:1143), and eleven percent in Victoria (Polk & Ranson,1989:12). However, the actual incidence of filicide is elusive due to undetected and unreported cases and forensic problems associated with filicide detection. In fact, filicide may be less likely to be detected than other forms of homicide. These issues are discussed in detail in the Methodology chapter. As filicide forms only a small proportion of detected homicides, this may account for its relative neglect in homicide studies. Filicide is nevertheless a significant problem. It demonstrates the darker side of our culture, as does its social response. (From Introduction)
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ItemWhen women kill: an exploration of scenarios of lethal self-help in Australia 1989-2000( 2003)Most 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.