Title
When Mothers Kill : Interviews from Prison / Cheryl L. Meyer, Michelle Oberman.
ISBN
9780814762516
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2008]
Copyright
©2008
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.18574/nyu/9780814762516.001.0001 doi
Dewey Decimal Classification
364.152308520973
Summary
Winner of the 2008 Outstanding Book Award by the Academy of Criminal Justice SciencesMichelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer don't write for news magazines or prime-time investigative television shows, but the stories they tell hold the same fascination. When Mothers Kill is compelling. In a clear, direct fashion the authors recount what they have learned from interviewing women imprisoned for killing their children. Readers will be shocked and outraged-as much by the violence the women have endured in their own lives as by the violence they engaged in-but they will also be informed and even enlightened.Oberman and Meyer are leading authorities on their subject. Their 2001 book, Mothers Who Kill Their Children, drew from hundreds of newspaper articles as well as from medical and social science journals to propose a comprehensive typology of maternal filicide. In that same year, driven by a desire to test their typology-and to better understand child-killing women not just as types but as individuals-Oberman and Meyer began interviewing women who had been incarcerated for the crime. After conducting lengthy, face-to-face interviews with forty prison inmates, they returned and selected eight women to speak with at even greater length. This new book begins with these stories, recounted in the matter-of-fact words of the inmates themselves.There are collective themes that emerge from these individual accounts, including histories of relentless interpersonal violence, troubled relationships with parents (particularly with mothers), twisted notions of romantic love, and deep conflicts about motherhood. These themes structure the books overall narrative, which also includes an insightful examination of the social and institutional systems that have failed these women. Neither the mothers nor the authors offer these stories as excuses for these crimes.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780814757024
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART 1 The Stories
1 The Saddest Stories
2 "She's the World to Me" The Mother-Daughter Relationships Described by Mothers Who Committed Filicide
3 Fighting for Love: Filicidal Mothers and Their Male Partners
4 Mothering: Hopes, Expectations, and Realities
5 Punishment, Shame, and Guilt
PART 2 Making Sense of the Stories
6 Interactions with the State: Holes in the Safety Nets
7 The End of the Story
Appendix A Methodology
Appendix B Neonaticide
Appendix C Mothers Who Purposely Kill Their Children
Notes
Index
About the Authors
