Female homicide offenders: Trends over time in an institutionalized population

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The records of 460 female homicide offenders, admitted to a state prison for women between 1940–66 and 1981–83, were examined to determine changes in the character of the offender and the criminal event itself. While there were several respects in which the contemporary murderess differs from her predecessor, overall the data have questioned the extent to which changing roles for women have influenced the character of female homicide over time. Whatever influence the women's movement might have had on middle- and upper-class women, the contemporary murderess seems as far from liberation as her sisters in the '40s, '50s, and '60s.