ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes public acts of violence by women and explore how the drive for revenge, and an intoxicating state of mind, combine to enable such acts. She discusses the origins and treatment of some of these high risk crimes of murder and terrorism. The author explores the significance of being designated either an IPP or a ‘restricted status’ prisoner, describing how this can create interminable sentences for women, who have few ways to demonstrate that the risk they pose to others has been diminished. She outlines a model for understanding acts of violence by women within particular social and cultural contexts rather than simply as manifestations of individual psychic imbalance. The author argues that for the need to understand the traumatic roots of the woman’s violence in order to develop a psychological formulation that evaluates risk and identifies treatment.
