Dr. FitzRoy examined women's use of violence in
Victoria, Australia, focusing on the experiences of
7 women who disclosed that they had perpetrated
serious indictable crimes. The crimes included
murder, accessory to murder after the fact,
manslaughter, child sexual and physical assaults,
grievous bodily harm, stalking and threats to kill.
The study also analyses the experiences and advice
from 120 workers along with relevant sentencing
comments. Dr FitzRoy concluded that all of us have
the potential to seriously assault others. Drawing
on a feminist analysis of male violence, the study
suggests that women's, like men's, violence is
also 'individually willed and socially
constructed'. The challenge for broader society, is
not to pathologise and blame individual women for
their use of violence, but to hear and see such
violence, respond appropriately to protect
vulnerable victims, and deconstruct longheld myths,
beliefs and ideologies that underpin oppressive
social, cultural and familial power relations
between men, women and children.