More women will kill due to violence

The hand that rocks the cradle should not be the same which pulls the trigger or wields the knife … but women can kill with as little compunction as men.

Yet, in this country, while we do have women who kill because they are psychopaths or who arrange to hire killers for some sort of monetary reward, the problem of females who commit murder is often complex and nuanced.

And it reflects, in many cases, our deeply dysfunctional society. Researchers say many of the cases of murder involving women as perpetrators are related to fear, or of trying to escape more domestic violence.

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No killing is justified … at least that is what the moralists will tell you. But, in circumstances where a woman is being brutalised by a man much bigger and more powerful than she is, the use of violence may be more than retaliation, it may be the only way an abused woman can stay alive.

Another worrying aspect of family and gender-based violence is that children in a home can come to believe this is normal … and that the use of violence to get your way is allowed.

Violence begets violence. Until we deal with that, we will have more and more women who kill.