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11 Colum. J. Gender & L. 38 (2002)
Victim or Vamp - Images of Violent Women in the Criminal Justice System

handle is hein.journals/coljgl11 and id is 44 raw text is: VICTIM OR VAMP? IMAGES OF VIOLENT WOMEN IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM CHIMENE L KEITNER* Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth, Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, But that our soft conditions and our hearts Should well agree with our external parts? -Kate, The Taming of the Shrew, Act V. Sc. II The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. -Pat Robertson, 1992 Christian Coalition fundraising letter I. INTRODUCTION The uncritical resort to sex-role stereotypes pervades the trials, sentencings, and media reactions to women who receive the death penalty. Although ideas of sex-appropriate behavior influence innumerable aspects of social relations, their influence in the criminal justice setting can be particularly invidious. In a given trial, a woman defendant's failure to conform to traditional notions of womanhood may lead judges and juries to believe that she is more likely to have committed the offense with which she is charged, to impute a higher degree of mens rea to her criminal action, or to condemn her more harshly for criminal behavior. On a general level, the condemnation of women who, in addition to committing criminal acts, also transgress other sex-role stereotypes, reinforces ideas of deviance and normalcy that can confine women to traditional roles of passivity and helplessness. . D.Phil., Oxford University, 2001; J.D. Candidate, Yale Law School. My thanks to Reva Siegel and Judith Resnik for helpful suggestions on drafts of this Article; my thanks also to the office staff of the Volusia County Felony Department for their friendliness and assistance.

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