Criminologists have noted a disturbing trend in the last few decades. Though men are still most often the perpetrators of murder, violent assault, and child molestation, more girls and women are becoming dangerous criminals. The news increasingly includes stories of mothers molesting or killing their children, female teachers having 'affairs' with grade school boys, and young girls beating up or molesting other children. Simultaneously fascinated and repelled by these lurid accounts, people often wonder out loud: how could a mother or young girl do such a thing? This is the first book to explore the full scope of girls and women behaving badly. From inappropriate sexual behaviour to brutal murders, forensic psychologist Dr Larry A. Morris relies on thirty years of personal clinical experience with perpetrators and victims of interpersonal violence to reveal why an alarming number of girls and women are now walking down dangerous paths to destruction. But this book is much more than a walk through the forbidden side of femininity. It provides a fresh perspective on the complex biological, developmental, psychological, and socio-cultural forces driving girls and women to molest and murder. Blending humanity with scientific rigor and evocative case material, the book draws readers into the direct experiences of dangerous girls and women, their families, and the professionals who try to understand and help them. Along the way, readers also learn practical ways to prevent these grievous acts from creeping into their lives.
Dangerous Women
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Prompted by a perplexing trend of women increasingly committing felonies, Morris, a clinical and forensic psychologist, examines why some females go wild and crazy, resulting in bad sexual behavior or murder. Although the author (The Male Heterosexual) revisits familiar media trivia on bad girls like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, the book doesn't really pick up steam until he explores the troubled pasts of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a single mother who killed several men and was executed in 2002, and Karla Homolka, known as The Barbie Doll, who, with her lover, taped their rape and murder of two teenaged girls, including one of Homolka's sisters. Morris delves into the lethal mix of developmental, psychological and cultural factors—negligent or abusive parents, social messages idolizing girls gone wild—that compel females to molest and kill: 70-year-old Loretta Fontaine killed her abusive husband, who terrorized her after they separated, and the infamous Susan Smith drowned her children and claimed a black man had killed them. Uncensored and engrossing, this study shows us the why and how, and gives practical ways to halt this heinous behavior from happening. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"As a survey of recent female initiated violence, Dangerous Women is a well-researched and well-written book." -- Sacramento Book Review, September 2008 "This is the first book to explore the scope of girls and women behaving badly... this book is much more than a walk through the forbidden side of femininity. It provides a fresh perspective on the complex biological, developmental, psychological, and socio-cultural forces driving girls and women to molest and murder. Blending humanity with scientific rigor and evocative case material, the book draws readers into the direct experiences of dangerous girls and women, their families, and the professionals who try to understand and help them. Along the way, readers also learn practical ways to prevent these grievous acts from creeping into their lies." --MonstersandCritics.com, November 30, 2008 "Came away from the book wowed by its collection of crimes and punishments." --California Lawyer, January 2009
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Frustrating Mess,
By denak (lawrence Ks) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dangerous Women: Why Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters Become Stalkers, Molesters, and Murderers (Hardcover)
For me, this book was a frustrating mess. At first, I thought the reason I was frustrated with this book was that it was coming from a social work/psychiatric viewpoint instead of a law enforcement/legal perspective. However, in the end, I had to concede that it isn't the view that it takes but the fact that Larry Morris cops out and takes the old "abuse excuse" route. Even when the women commit heinous crimes against individuals, they are not held responsible. Dr. Morris falls back on `oh she was abused" or "oh she is mentally ill" excuse and then completely and utterly absolves the woman of responsibility for her crime. He jumps through hurdles to *not* assign blame." For example, in the chapter entitled, "Taboo Breakers," he writes about a woman by the name of Virginia Lion. Virginia Lion sexually molested and exploited her children. She knowingly and willingly took pictures of her children in sexually provocative poses, sexually abused them, made them abuse each other and made these children perform sex acts in front of her while she had phone sex with her lover, who was in prison. Virginia, though, isn't responsbile for her actions. No,according to Dr. Morris, she was just desperate for love and kept picking the wrong men. It wasn't that she knowingly exploited her children, no she was just a victim of her prison lover, who *made* her do this. She isn't the perp, he was. She is, yet again, just one more woman, who doesn't commit her crimes of her own volition, but one who commits a crime because of a man. The man, who was in prison, made her commit her crimes. Luckily, the judge saw her for what she was and sentenced her to 500 hundred years. A sentence that left Dr. Morris "astonished."The second thing that bothered me was that Dr. Morris seems to have absolutely no compassion for the victims. In fact, it often times seems as if he elevates the female perpetrator's suffering over that of her victims. There are always two victims in Dr. Morris' eyes...the woman and the victim(s). How insulting and cruel that is to the victim! The victim who was molested, or murdered, or whose hand was held over an open flame until the skin burned off, their pain is secondary. In fact, you never really hear from a victim until you get to the chapter on clergy abuse. Then you get several different accounts. It is unfortunate that one has to wait eight chapters to hear first hand from a victim. This also underscores what I perceive as an anti-religion bias in his book. Dr. Morris never fails to mention a person's religious upbringing if he can. The sad thing about this book is that there are some good things in it but they get lost. The chapters on how he became a forensic psychologist and the court system, the chapter on the oversexualization of our children, the emphasis on recognizing mental illness, and the chapter on preventive measures (ie parenting classes) are all really important things we need to recognize and implement in our society. However, these are not things that are specific to women. The book ultimately fails because the things that he pinpoints that need to be addressed, the "whys" of why women kill are ultimately not gender specific. Women kill for the same reasons men kill. They kill because of greed, hatred, power, opportunity, "love," territory etc. We hold men responsible for their crimes even though abuse, mental abuse, molestation etc occur in their lives, it is time that we hold women accountable also. Dr. Morris doesn't. Dena P.S. A much better book to read if one wants to explore why women commit crimes is: When She was Bad: Violent Women and the Myth of Innocence by Patricia Pearson.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Expected better by a professional psychologist,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Dangerous Women: Why Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters Become Stalkers, Molesters, and Murderers (Hardcover)
Given that this was written by licensed psychologist, I expected use of real citations (instead of pop psych books), and more professional distance. I also expected more accuracy (Lenore Walker did Not come up with the concept of Learned Helplessness but just applied it to women in abusive relationships). Why do we need a book explaining Why women are violent; we don't write them about men. There is a perpetuation that women's aggression is somehow deviant in a way that males' isn't.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Insulting and enraging,
This review is from: Dangerous Women: Why Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters Become Stalkers, Molesters, and Murderers (Hardcover)
Dangerous Women: Why Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters Become Stalkers, Molesters, and Murderers was supposed to be an insightful book into the minds of deranged female criminals. Alas it was not.The first three women profiled were Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears, which do not fall into the category of stalkers, molesters, or murderers. That's not to say they are saints, but definitely not the caliber of the rest of the women in the book. Plus, if I wanted to hear about their sordid lives, I would have read a sleazy tabloid or watched E! The author tries to make the argument that these women are dangerous because they are "oversexed, under-dressed" celebrities that young girls look up to. First of all, I can produce a huge laundry list of similar celebrities. Second of all, the "danger" that these women pose isn't within them, but an inherent part of our society that needs to be changed. These women were never mentioned again in the book or cited as the cause for any crimes. The author makes outrageous and enraging points at times. He tries to make the case that aggression in young boys is typical, and therefore acceptable, but aggression in young girls is horrible and dangerous. He states that women being sexual "flies in the face of all we think we know about our mothers, sisters, and other women." He poses this question: "If an adult molests a child, who is responsible? Who needs protection?" I think this is completely outrageous and insulting to imply that the molestation might be the fault of the child. Throughout the book, there was a generally misogynistic tone with occasionally derogatory language. These are only a few grievances I have with this book. This book angered me and insulted me. It was still an interesting read in that I got to see an opinion different than mine. Another similar book is See Jane Hit by James Garbarino.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
