ABSTRACT
Once involved in violent offending, women were faced with choices and decisions that had to be made about their participation in individual crime events. This chapter pays attention to the effects that situational or microlevel factors had on their experiences with committing violence. It explores with the women what factors influenced their decision to participate in a particular event (motivation); what, if any, elements of rationality or planning went into the commission of the crime; how they decided whether to include other people or weapons and, if so, which people and what types of weapons; whether drugs or alcohol were ingested either prior to or during the event; and how they decided where to commit the crime. The chapter also explores such interactional aspects as victim-offender relationships and accomplice involvement. It is within local communities that the women interacted and made decisions regarding school, work, and family, and devised ways of coping with the demands imposed by the larger structures.
