Another women who kills almost walks free
Sentencing of Catherine Therese Collyer sends poor message to other victims Catherine Therese Collyer (left) leaves the Supreme Court with a friend. Pic: Chris
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Sentencing of Catherine Therese Collyer sends poor message to other victims Catherine Therese Collyer (left) leaves the Supreme Court with a friend. Pic: Chris
Family violence has, in recent years, been subjected to a very short sighted restricted analysis that is based on stereotypes of victims and abusers. Typically, the “victim” is depicted as a timid, oppressed female and the abuser is portrayed as a brutish, aggressive male that often assaults or even murders children. But such gender stereotypes are dangerous, and leave groups of people suffering and vulnerable because they do not fit the pigeon hole prescriptions that dominate family violence discourse and support organisations in our country.
Maternal filicide, defined as child murder by mothers, is a problem that transcends national boundaries. Mothers who kill their children often use the defence of depression or insanity, but are all mothers who kill their children insane? The short answer is “No,” and some courts are beginning to recognise that fact as the following transcribed media accounts of recent criminal proceedings reveal:
“Donna Fitchett called the murder of her two boys her ‘greatest act of love’, but in sentencing late last year Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Curtain told her it was her ‘greatest act of betrayal’.
Talk about spoiling the party! Just as the 100th International Women’s Day dawns over a perfumed world Aussie professor Kim Halford has released a study
Narrator:
The sexual abuse of children by women was once thought to be so rare it could be ignored. Today the victims tell a different story.
Barbara Walters: We focus a lot of attention on battered women in our society, because their plight is so common. But strange as it may
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