Women Who Kill

Abstract

THE PURPOSES of this study were first, to determine if females who commit homicide could be described with respect to personality style and behavior patterns, and second, to relate sociological variables to these personality styles. Interest in the possibility of such a categorization of female homicides developed during psychiatric evaluation of the 112 homicide cases scheduled for the 1965 Board of Trustees review at the California Institution for Women, when it was observed that very similar histories were given by the inmates. Source material for the study included the psychiatric evaluations, crime description and court proceedings, prior criminal records, information given by family and acquaintances, interview data collected by psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers, and custodial reports of institutional behavior. The senior author (K.E.C.) conducted the psychiatric interviews and reviewed all the source material. From this total material