NCJ Number
162177
Journal
Women & Criminal Justice Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: (1990) Pages: 87-109
Date Published
1990
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This descriptive study compares two groups of women arrested for homicide in six urban areas in 1979 and 1983, those who had used alcohol or narcotics prior to the killing and those who had not used any substance.
Abstract
The women and their victims were examined on a number of social characteristics, the circumstances of the homicide, and their criminal justice processing. The study found that very few characteristics distinguish the drug-using woman who kills from the non-drug user. Whether or not they had used a substance prior to the homicide, women who killed were unemployed minority mothers who premeditated the event, killed alone, usually with a single wound caused by a gun, and claimed little responsibility for the crime. Few characteristics were found to differentiate the women's victims, who were predominantly male, nonwhite, and in an intimate relationship with their killer. Circumstances surrounding the homicides were found to have more similarities than differences, and the two groups fared about the same in criminal justice processing. Results suggested a difference between alcohol and drug users, and the author is convinced that there are differences between women who use a controlled substance and women who use alcohol before they kill. Tables, notes, references