WOMEN AS OFFENDERS OF THE

CRIME OF HOMICIDE - FROM A

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW TO
CURRENT DAYS IN N.
MACEDONIA
Olga Koshevaliska
Elena Maksimova
Historical overview
Crimes committed by women as serial killers –
• Nannie Doss - the giggling nanny - murders of her five husbands, her mother,
sister, mother-in-law and nephew;
• Elizabeth Bathory - the Blood Countess - Hungarian noblewoman, 1585 -
1610 tortured and killed nearly 650 girls, mostly teenagers;
• Amelia Dyer - housed and cared for newborns in Victorian England, left it to
die of negligence;
• Jane Toppan - Jolly Jane, confesses to 31 murders, nurse who experimented
with morphine and atrophins on her patients' poor families;
• Aileen Wuornos- killed seven men in Florida ,1898 a-1990 under the pretext
of self-defense against rape- not proven in court;
• Leonarda Cianciulli - Italian housewife, 1939 - 1940 made tea cookies and
soaps from human flesh. Offered the cakes to family and friends and used the
soaps to bathe with her husband.

Numerous unsolved cases in large noble families where the female background
was overseen
• ancient historian Titus Livius records a case - sixth century BC, the daughter of
the penultimate Roman king Servius Tullius, Tulia, initiated and supported the
murder of her own father
MAIN GENDER DIFFERENTIALS
General facts:
• 90% of homicides committed by men,
• 70% of homicide victims are men
• over half of all homicides occur between men
• much more likely that male perpetrators kill stranger, casual acquaintance than a loved
one – opposite for women

male homicides – confrontational,

demonstration of greater power,
honor, control, revenge killings,
well-planned attacks, cold-
blooded murders or murders for
gain.
Females - one's own perception of
experiencing "failure" in a particular
field of life - loss of control, murders
committed in an emotional state
in self-defense or instrumentally, to
achieve certain momentary goals,
“bettered woman syndrome”
Comparative researches
Swedish research group
1990 - 2010
• adult victim - the intimate partner,
influence of narcotics, using a cold
weapon "knife violence", prior violence
from the victim
• child victim - 24% of the total,
• for man, only 5%
• scene - usually the home, different for
men
• Homicide / suicide
• mental disorder
• negligence and infanticide
• mental disorder, violence and the use
of hallucinogenic substances
Canada
mainly committed on intimate partner, in 28%
previously victimized by the victim
USA
downward trend
1.6 perpetretors per 100 000 inhabitants
research in Finland 2008 and 2011
• Female homicide – previous family
violence
• failed to finish elementary school
• suicidal ideation - not the case with
male perpetrators
• a slight increase in this crime,
compared with past researches
• significant narrowing of the gap
between male and female
perpetrators.
• constant alcohol abuse
• less and less in a family or intimate
relationship with the victim of the
crime
The countries of the Balkan region
• victims that are weaker
• take advantage of the moment of
carelessness and powerlessness -
insidious ways, qualifying circumstance
-severe punishment
• disturbed personality, lack of empathy
- psychologist Nebojsa Jovanovic
• more monstrous than man
• first registered serial killer is a woman
(grandmother Anujka)
• causes - selfishness, revenge, chronic
alcoholism of the victim and jealousy,
• tool – situational
• Place - home
• In past - by hanging, hot liquids,
baking soda, novelty - "Molotov
cocktail"
• dominated by the murder of a partner
• frequent after the disintegration of the
SFRY,
• does not linked with another crime,
such as theft
 In most cases - sentimental motives, profile of the victim - intimate
partner, current or former - due to previous abuse, putting the

Intimate woman in a central role

Partner male perpetrators of intimate partner homicides – (heterosexual

Abuse
relations) women are victims have a less "victimized history" of
violence than compared to a situation where a woman appears to
be the perpetrator

→Intimate subtypes of homicides committed by victimized intimate partners:

Partner - self-defense homicides,

-revenge homicides,

Homicides
-and sexual domination and possessive homicides;

collateral killing - on the new partner of their previous intimate

partner, his child, a stranger or a police officer present
Infanticide – delicta propria

Subtypes: Homicide of a child during childbirth, ie in the first 24 hours after birth
(neonaticide) -associated with young girls and their previous denial of
pregnancy. In other cases, the children are thought to be at least one day old, but
not more than a year old (infanticide).

Forced, assisted infanticide - when it involves the male, predominant, partner.

◦ Mostly privileged form of crime Women are involved in relationships filled with violence and are afraid of their
(except USA no act so far provides ) partners.

◦ female infanticide - more Infanticide associated with carelessness and negligence, where newborns die of
practiced neglect and carelessness on the part of the mother.

◦ Mostly committed -
abandonment and exposure of the Infanticide related to abuse and violence, where the cause of death is precisely
child to starvation, cold or animal the abuse.
attack, suffocation, drowning and
the aforementioned, neglect or
abuse
Infant-related mental illness in the mother, acute or chronic, significant
depression or psychotic episode results in the death of the newborn

General female’s methods
and ways to commit homicide
The way a woman would commit a homicide
depends on the victim and the situation,
affective state - repeating the action with which
inflicts fatal injuries!
Poison, always considered as a female tool
◦ historically - thallium, sleeping pills,
insulin injections, poison gas, ground glass,
and normal arsenic.
◦ Nowadays -standard poisons as well as
narcotics and sleeping pills, and poison
gas!
◦ close to the character and constitution of
the woman,
◦ most characteristic for white women
Other ways:
➢ homicides by suffocation ,
➢ drowning,
➢ strangulation, cold weapon - knife
➢ firearms - in cases of necessary defense,
when the partner possesses such (USA -
39% from whole)
 Macedonia
infanticide
it as a privileged type of homicide,
incriminated as "killing a child during
labour"
the frequency of this crime is in the
◦ .
rural areas - unwanted pregnancies in
girls from rural areas
The first such case registered in 1962
from 2005-2015 we have 4 child
murder registrations
presence of a dark figure
most often as a mother – female -age
16-18 years, sometimes even
younger, not aware of pregnancy at
all, or is careless of her own condition
It is a rare crime
Mostly from - bodily injury and severe bodily
injury.
Female - more often they occur as victims
As perpetrators - in relation to the homicide
under Article 125 of the Criminal Code, ie at
the moment and under Article 126, ie due to
negligence
Homicides committed by women are usually
preceded by many years of harassment and
victimization - accumulated mental distress
Intimate partner abuse that inevitably leads to
Intimate partners homicide
we have more cases of attempted homicide
than actual homicide
murders
the use of cold steel, like a knife, a screwdriver
affective character
 IMPRISONMENT SENTENCES FOR WOMEN IN THE REPUBLIC OF
MACEDONIA WHO COMMITTED HOMICIDE (Idrizovo Penitentiary)

1 123 Criminal Code

for the murder of her
husband - a sentence
2 Murder, sentence of 6
➢ Case study - interview

years and 10 months

of 6 years of prison,
(typical self-defense)

Bettered woman
Married, mother of
syndrome, mother of
two – one minor,
two children, 24 years
several months victim
victim of domestic
of physical and

3 4
violence, B.Sc.
mentall violence
engineer

Sentenced to 20 years
imprisonment –
Homicide– sentenced
homicide of a 3 year
to 20 years
old girl, committed
imprisonment
together with her
husband

Abroad, mother of
two, victim of Mother of four, Roma
domestic violence, nationality, abused
desecration of a from first spouse,
victim, psychic prob. impaired mental
in her and in the health
children, ignorant
 Data from interview in
Macedonian’s prison
“Bettered woman
in most cases, - to protect
syndrome" - should be a
the family, and
sentenced to long prison guideline for the
themselves, from the
primary offenders terms, over five years in individualization of the
aggressor (prior
prison, treatment of women. In
victimization for many
RNM is either neglected
years)
or not performed at all

Self-defense - Most often - the last

accumulated anger from
Often as a trigger -
violence or affective, as
current irritability from
well as diverting the
the last event
attack from self-harm to
injury
option is violence - she
does not intend to kill
him, just to end the
current unbearable
situation
 Conclusion
Less than male perpetrator – new
forms, more violence – must be follow
permanently

Affection – emotions included

"Intimate partner homicide", not

every blow is an indicator of the real
abuser- more attention to previous
signs of victimization –better police
response

Bettered women syndrome –

authorities must take it into account
and know how to recognize it
THANK YOU FOR
YOUR ATTENTION

OLGA KOSHEVALISKA - OLGA.GURKOVA@UGD.EDU.MK

ELENA MAKSIMOVA– ELENA.MAKSIMOVA@UGD.EDU.MK