Female Offender behavior

• Week 5 covers violent women and constructions of femininity, with the midterm being held February 11th.

Announcements and Reminders

• Office hours are held Wednesdays from 1-2 pm via Zoom.
• Be on time for the midterm in class on Tuesday, February 11th.
• There will be a reading week from February 18-21, during which there will be no office hours.

Introduction to Violent Women

• Women account for 17% of recorded violent crimes in Canada.
• Female violent offenders are typically in their mid-30s with at least one child.
• These women are more likely to have been victims of physical or sexual violence.
• Instrumental violence: violent acts that involve planning and lack a strong emotional component.
• Violent women share similar qualities with violent men.
• "Gender-Neutral": Characteristics of criminal behavior applicable to both men and women.
• "Gender-Informed": Characteristics unique to criminalized women.

Intimate Partner Violence

• Violence by women towards their partners is not well understood.
• Some researchers believe, that both men and women are equal offenders in IPV.
• Crime victimization studies suggest IPV is predominantly committed by men.
• Women commit violence against partners, mostly for self-defense
• Four types of intimate violence as listed by Johnson (1995, 2010):
  • Intimate Terrorism: escalates over time, and is characterized by severe and frequent intimate partner violence
  • Common Couple Violence: Violence in need of control in a specific situation
  • Violent Resistance: Violence in either response to violence, as self-defense, or other
  • Mutual Violent control: generalized control of the other person/relationship, with Both partners engaging in violence

Female Perpetrated Violence

• Wexler (2020) identified four types of female-perpetrated intimate violence:
  • Primary Aggressor: Women who initiate unprovoked aggression with the sense of entitlement and control, possibly due to severe victimization.
  • These women demonstrate actions similar to violent women
  • Violent Reactive: Women who engage in violence against a long-standing abusive partner and/or violent partner.
  • Similar to the "violent resistance" type described by Johnson (2010)
  • Bidirectional: similar to common couple violence, and is a contemporary term
  • Self-Defense: Women strictly engage in self-defense with clear indications of imminent danger, and are commonly found not guilty by the courts.

Women Who Kill

• Adult women are responsible for 13% of all homicides.
• Indigenous women are charged with homicide 2.3 times more than Non-Indigenous women.
• 93% of homicides committed by women were against people they knew.
• There are four types of homicide: spousal homicide, childe homicide, homicide related to other offenses (e.g., assault), and "others".
• Reasons for killing can vary and may include:
  • mental health issues
  • past family violence
  • self-defense

Mad, Bad, or Victim Typologies in Cases of Child Murder

• Women who commit murder against children are categorized in one of three ways:
  • Mad Woman: Mentally ill, unstable, irrational
  • Bad Woman: Pure "evil," cold-blooded killer
  • Victim: Suffering from battered woman syndrome and abused by partner

Introduction to Infanticide

• Infanticide: Killing one's child under the age of one year.
• Filicide: Killing one's child under 18.
• Neonaticide: Killing a newborn on the day of birth.
• Punishment for infanticide:
  • Under Section 237 a female who commits infanticide is guilty of:
    • (a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years; or
    • (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.
  • Only females can be charged with infanticide.

Legal Implications for Infanticide

• Under the infanticide law, a female person commits infanticide when, by a willful act or omission, she causes the death of her newly-born child.
  • At the time of the act or omission, she is still fully recovering from the child birth effects, and that her mind is then disturbed as a result.
• Killing an unborn child during an act of birth is considered as murder
  • Any child that is born during such an act is considered a human being, and thus is guilty of an indictable offense. (S. 238.1)
• Concealing the body of a child is an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for up to two years if intend on concealing a child, and it's delivery (Section 243)

Current Dissertation Research

• Aims for analysis of case law of women who have killed their child under the age of one.
• Main research questions:
  • How are women who kill their newborns prosecuted in law?
  • How is the narrative of womanhood and motherhood constructed in the sentencing process?
• Research will have following criteria:
  • Canadian cases only
  • Only Biological Mothers considered
  • If Death of a child is under the age of 1
• Data sources to be used:
  • Can-Lii
  • Factiva
  • Hansard Index of House of Commons
  • Quicklaw

Preliminary Findings - Infanticide

• The death of a child that happens in any community is a tragedy, but it is even more tragic if that death is a result of a wilful act.
• The mother's involvement has been reported as an unspeakable tragedy, describing the mother's miracle baby as full of "many years of struggle and worry." (R v Kang, 2008)
• Most if not all other "the death of a baby defies rational explanation", the fact is the offender is responsible. R v Pemberton, 2019
• In a case where the mother was 24 and had a child "the relationship with her husband had been very strained, and she had endured great unhappiness" , it can be seen that "she gave birth to twins, and immediately upon their birth she became seriously depressed." (R v Szola, 1977)

Murderous Moms

• Mothers who commit infanticide as labeled as "triple deviant."
• They break the law, defy the moral standard of womanhood, and violate the standard of motherhood itself.
• The Criminal Justice System has a hard time accepting that motherhood does not exist in a vacuum.

Women Who Sexually Offend

• Sexual offending by women is rare and not new.
• First formal writings on child sexual abuse committed by a woman, are noted in 1857.
• 12% of those who engage in sexual offending are women.
• Recidivism rate is very low (1% risk).
• The offenders tend to be poor and young, with a low socio-economic status and poor education.
• Lack of research in that area due to viewing women and less nurturing.

Definitions of Sexual Offences

• Sexual assault includes three levels:
  • Sexual assault level 1 (s. 271): assault in nature, with a minor physical injuries or no injuries.
  • Sexual assault level 2 (s. 272): Sexual assault with a weapon, threats, or causing bodily harm.
  • Aggravated sexual assault level 3 (s. 273): Assault resulting in wounding, harming, or threatening the safety of the victim.
• Other sexual offenses include:
  • Incest (s.155)
  • Anal Intercourse (s. 159)
  • Voyeurism (s. 162)
  • Sexual Exploitation towards young child (s. 153)
  • Sexual Interference (s. 151)
  • Child Pornography (s. 163)

Concepts of Dangerousness and Risk

• Sex Offender: Any person who is reported for committing a sexual act
• Dangerousness: To physically, psychologically, or morally harm oneself or others.
• Risk: a person who commits future harmful acts
• Belief among society is that people who are sexual acts will not change and will more likely to re-offend

Community Protection in Legislation

• National Sex Offender Registry (SOR) – a searchable database with the information of reported sex offenders.
• Designated sex offences consist of the following: interference including sexual interference, incest, sexual assault, child pornography, etc..
• Link to FULL LIST: https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/sex-offender-management
• The database are restricted and NOT PUBLIC, and only police agencies have access
• Sex offenders must report once a year, but can submit for termination

Christopher's Law in Ontario

• In 2000 Ontario launched Christopher's law
• An act that was the first province to establish a sex offender registry, that automatically added all convicted of sexual offence or who's NCRMD as a sexual offence.
• Abduction of Christopher was an event, which included of 11-year-old Christopher Stephenson in 1988 at Brampton, Ontario
• Culprit: Convicted child molester Joseph Fredericks
• Led to resulting inquest of the event, resulted of 71 recommendations

Women Who Sexually Offend

• Many professionals minimize sexual offending by women.
• It is believe to be less serious or of small act, women however commit very similar actions as men, and victims should not belittled.
• To view on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7L9tnEqTv8&ab_channel=ThisMorning

Case Study: Madison Biluk

• Manitoba
• Is a 28-year-old former female hockey coach.
• Faces 15 charges, including sexual assault and sexual exploitation.
• To view on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOIC9cIUZIU&ab_channel=CBCNewsManitoba
• Also available through the news: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/female-sex-offenders-experts-1.7031939

Pathways of Offending

• There gender-informed offenders:

1. Co-Offending: women who offend with people that have relationship

• Usually involves abusive partners Tend to have strange lifestyles, such as swingers' club visits, viewing pornography together, engaging in sexual relations in public

2. Implicit-Disorganized: women who have relationships with the victims to meat their own social needs

• tend to be victims or adults

3. Approach-Explicit: women who have sexual thoughts and act on them with reasons for pleasure or rewards

• Sexual gratification, intimacy, revenge and humiliation or financial rewards

Treatment of Women Who Sexually Offend

• Many of sexual re-offenders
• 5 broad areas:
  • Cognitive Processes
  • Emotional Processes
  • Intimacy and relationship issues
  • Sexual Dynamics
  • Psychosocial functioning

Clinical Interpretations of Paraphilia

• Mental health that that states activities done do not have mutual activities
• Most sex offenders do not meet the clinical criteria for paraphilia according to the DSM-5
• Handbook that contains professionals views to diagnose mental disorders

Types of Paraphilia:

• Pedophilia, individuals who fantasizes of children
• Sexual Sadism, where the sex acts are non-consensual and harm
• Exhibitionism, where exposure happens is a person who derives sexual arousal exposing their genitals to others
• Sexual urge and fantization for peeping tom's, Voyeurism.
• Sexual urges of touchurism, Frotteurism.

Management and Treatments

• Majority of people with sexual offences are on community supervision supervision.
• Most fenders who reoffender have a "warrant expiry date" (WED) -option where authorities have sexual offenders.
• 1 order prohibition , where there are specific limitations for high risks sexual offences from being near certain things or people. Must be order after 2 years

Management and Treatments

• Majority of people charged with sexual offences are subject to community supervision orders after released from prison
• Most offenders are released after 2/3 of their sentence and put on parole or probation. However, sex offenders deemed of high risk of reoffender can have a "warrant expiry date" WED -community prohibition order used for sex offenders deemed to be high risk 810.1 order contains conditions designed to help monitor and limit the persons movement and automatically expires after 2 years

Case Study: Crystal Henricks

• Prince George, British Columbia,

• Crystal Henricks, 19-year-old and husband, James Bennett

• Convicted with 3 children and

• The video is posted on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxqp0Jah_VI&ab_channel=REALWOMEN%2FREALSTORIES

• The midterm will be held in class February 11th

• It will include/consist of 60 MC/TF questions Also, No class on Feb 13th

Explore distinctions in gender-informed vs. neutral traits in criminal behavior and Johnson's IPV types. Review female-perpetrated homicide, instrumental violence, and Indigenous women offenders. Also, analyze victimology, arguments on female violence, 'Mad Woman' stereotype in child homicide, and complexities in infanticide cases.