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Friday morning in the courtroom of the Biel-Nidau District Court: After a nine-day trial, presiding judge Markus Gross delivers his verdict: guilty of murder. He sentences 22-year-old Gabi R. to 18 years in prison. She was convicted of murdering a 42-year-old acquaintance, who had become a nuisance to her, on the Biel beach in March 2007, together with two young men. Gabi R. was the mastermind, the instigator of the murder.
Two days earlier, on Wednesday, before the Zurich jury court: A 31-year-old mother was on trial. She was accused of attempting to strangle her young son, who was only 17 months old, to death. She, too, was found guilty of attempted murder. The court will decide on the sentence – the prosecution had requested preventive detention – later, once a second psychiatric evaluation is available.
More female violence:
Two serious convictions against women within a week. A look at the latest federal crime statistics shows that these two female perpetrators are not isolated cases. In 2007 alone, 23 women were identified in Switzerland as perpetrators of attempted or completed homicide. While a comparison with the number of male homicides – 187 perpetrators were convicted in 2007 – clearly shows that crime, and especially violence, remains predominantly male, the situation is changing: The number of violent women is rising. In 2002, 589 female perpetrators were convicted of assault in Switzerland, while in 2007 the number had already risen to 1,308 (see chart). This represents an increase of 122 percent.
During the same period, the number of identified offenders also increased, although not to the same extent. In 2002, 12.3 percent of those convicted of assault were female; by 2007, this figure had risen to 17.1 percent. A similar upward trend can be observed in juvenile offenses and in the crime statistics of other Western countries.
Despite this development, violence against women remains a taboo subject. The image of a woman as a perpetrator of violence is just as far removed from the prevailing gender role as that of a man as a victim. The topic has also received very little attention in academia and research. However, experts are now beginning to focus more on female perpetrators of violence. Last week, a conference organized by the Criminological Research Institute in Wiesbaden was dedicated exclusively to female perpetrators, focusing on those areas in which women also commit crimes: domestic violence, violence against elderly people in care settings, the killing of an intimate partner, the killing of one's own child, and even the sexual abuse of children.
Women kill differently.
“Women are capable of anything,” comments Franziska Lamott. She works in the Forensic Psychotherapy section of the University of Ulm and conducted numerous interviews with women who had murdered their partners as part of a study. However, the exact reasons why the women killed their men remained a mystery to her in many cases – because the perpetrators themselves often lacked access to their inner motives.
One thing is certain: women kill for different reasons than men. "The women who kill want to separate from their husbands – men, on the other hand, kill their wives because they don't want to let them go," says Franziska Lamott. Often, it's psychological dependence that prevents the woman from simply packing her bags. So she resorts to other means, becomes a murderer. And: women kill differently than men. While men often act impulsively, women are more frequently convicted of premeditated murder than manslaughter. Because of their physical inferiority, women compelled to surprise men, for example, while they sleep, explains Franziska Lamott. Women don't kill reflexively out of self-defense – they act in retaliation in situations where the man is weakened. "Women predominantly use a knife – the days of poisoning are largely over," says Lamott. However, it also happens that the woman delegates the actual act of killing.
Franziska Lamott cannot definitively answer the question of why female violence is on the rise. What is clear to her is that the "male fantasy" that women criminality increases with their emancipation is unfounded. "I believe the thesis needs to be reversed: only if women are aggressive can they emancipate themselves."
Statistically, the proportion of women who perpetrate violence in their relationships has also risen in recent years – possibly because men are now better able to admit to being victims. "Women are certainly violent in their relationships," explains Barbara Kavemann, a professor at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences. "Women hit, bite, kick, throw objects, and push." Often, violence in relationships is reciprocal: sometimes he hits, sometimes she does. But here, too, female violence differs from male violence. women are not concerned with a loss of power or control, but rather with resistance in the form of violence. And above all: men perpetrate far more damaging violence than women. While a quarter of all men in Germany report having experienced violence from their partner at least once within their relationship, only five percent were injured. Women, on the other hand, often suffer injuries, sometimes serious ones.
Courses for Female Abuses:
In Switzerland, gender-specific statistics on domestic violence are not collected in all cantons. However, some cantons are responding to the realization that women are also, and increasingly, perpetrators. For example, in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, police recorded an increase in female suspects in domestic violence cases involving criminal offenses from 15 to 20 percent within three years. Last year, criminal proceedings were initiated against 35 women for domestic violence. Now, the canton is offering a new course for violent women, where they can learn to manage their aggression differently – a first in Switzerland. Justice Director Sabine Pegoraro hopes this will break the taboo surrounding the topic. She explains that violence against women is rarely discussed today because men are ashamed to "come out" as victims, and children don't know where to turn for help.
Children are particularly vulnerable to violence perpetrated by women, through neglect, abuse, or even murder. When a mother kills her own child, the act always provokes widespread horror and incomprehension. However, such an act is often rooted in the mother's distress. Many perpetrators suffer from mental illness, psychosis, delusions, or depression. Sometimes, a failed suicide attempt follows the killing. Occasionally, mothers also kill their children as revenge against their husbands, or simply because they are overwhelmed by their own situation and the demands of caring for their child.
The day before Christmas last year in Horgen, near Zurich: Seven-year-old twins Céline and Mario were suffocated in their beds (see box). Their mother is the prime suspect. She will have to answer for her actions in a Zurich court next year. Her motives remain completely unclear. The psychiatrist's report will also play a major role in her case.
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Homicides in Switzerland – committed by women
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Caroline H.: She is considered the most dangerous woman in Switzerland; a high-security wing was built at the Hindelbank women's prison (BE) because of her. In 2001, the Zurich High Court found Caroline H. guilty of stabbing and killing a 29-year-old woman , and of murdering a 61-year-old woman In 1998, Caroline H. also seriously injured a 75-year-old woman in Zurich's old town. She also started more than 50 fires. Caroline H. was sentenced to life imprisonment and is incarcerated in Hindelbank. On Thursday, it was announced that she will undergo a new evaluation under the revised penal code: Based on a Federal Supreme Court ruling, the High Court must determine whether she can undergo inpatient therapeutic treatment instead of being held in preventive detention.
Damaris K.: The former housekeeper and second wife of wealthy Bernese patent attorney René K. was found guilty of her husband's murder by all courts. René K. was shot dead by an accomplice in May 1998 during a walk along the Aare River. The courts concluded that Damaris K. had commissioned her husband's murder and lured him into a trap – because she wanted to separate from him without relinquishing her inheritance. Damaris K. was sentenced to 18 years in prison. To this day, she maintains her innocence.
Bianca B.: On December 23, 2007, seven-year-old twins Céline and Mario from Horgen (ZH) died. They were suffocated in their beds. Police initially arrested both parents. The father was soon released. The 34-year-old mother, however, remains in custody. The trial is scheduled for next year. Cécile B.: On March 1, 2005, banker Edouard Stern was found dead in his Geneva apartment. He had been shot four times with a pistol, two of which struck his head. His body was wrapped in a latex suit. Shortly afterward, police arrested French national Cécile B. She is alleged to have had a sexual relationship with Stern and confessed to the crime. She is expected to stand trial in Geneva early next year.
Daniela T.: In 2000, Daniela T. shot and killed her 26-year-old boyfriend, Walter Plüschke, in Ueberstorf (FR). She attempted to burn his body and buried the remains near her house. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The motive for the crime remains unclear. (cbb.)
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