The Psychology of Female Violence: Crimes Against the Body

315 Pages·2008·1.36 MB·English

by  Anna Motz

The Psychology of Female Violence,
second edition
What are the causes of violence in women?
What can be done to help these women and their victims?
Why does society deny the fact of female violence?
This book explores the nature and causes of female violence from the perspectives of
psychodynamic theory and forensic psychology. This fully updated and expanded second
edition explores developments in research and services for violent women. Recent high
profile cases of female violence are discussed alongside clinical material and theory. New
topics include: the Victoria Climbié Inquiry, the controversy related to the diagnosis of
Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, dangerous and severe personality disorder in women,
and the impact of pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia websites. New chapters address central
clinical issues of working with women who kill and designing therapeutic services for
women in secure mental health settings. Other major topics include:
• women who sexually and physically abuse children
• infanticide
• fabricated and induced illness
• self-harm
The Psychology of Female Violence will be valuable to trainees and practitioners working
in the fields of clinical and forensic psychology, women’s studies, sociology, psychiatric
nursing, social work, probation, counselling, psychoanalysis, the criminal justice system
and criminology.
Anna Motz is a Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist with the Thames
Valley Forensic Mental Health Services. She has extensive clinical experience with
women as perpetrators and victims of violence and with the staff teams who work with
them. She has written widely on this topic and is the immediate Past President of the
International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy.
Reviews of the first edition
‘…an intellectually substantial and highly readable contribution to our clinical knowledge
of the complex roots of female violence.’ Estela Welldon, in her Foreword
‘…In The Psychology of Female Violence, Anna Motz offers a clear, well-supported,
comprehensible, and theoretically sophisticated examination of three types of violence by
women: violence against children, violence against the self, and battered women who kill
their batterers. Although this book will be valuable to clinical practitioners,
psychologists, sociologists, and researchers of violence, it is also clearly written and
accessible to newcomers to the subject…. Because of the breadth and depth of the
information in this book, it is a highly valuable addition to the literature on violence by
and against women, applicable for both practitioners and academics. It is well written and
well organized, and Motz offers extensive support for her contentions and conclusions,
giving many references to other theorists, practitioners, and researchers.’ Danielle
Currier,Psychology and Feminism
‘…For to be confronted with Motz’s dedication to those women who break the
ultimate code brings us to consider the harsh reality of the female perpetrator…What is
valuable is that Motz, as a chartered forensic psychologist, speaks from the cutting edge
of experience drawing from her day to day work from the last ten years …it is important
to recognise that Motz has studied these disorders in depth. Not only does she offer a
comparative analysis of the psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural models of
treatment of these well-represented disorders, but her analysis of categories of harming
behaviour is both illuminating and useful…Finally it is important to emphasise the wealth
of practical, legal and professional information contained in this productive
publication…. Motz has provided not only an outline of the complexity of each aspect of
female violence, but also a full explanation of the means by which each of the
professional agencies combine to ascertain diagnosis.’ Tessa Adams, British Journal of
Psychotherapy
‘…Anna Motz clears up many of the mysteries surrounding the interpersonal damage
that characterizes the offending behaviour of perverse and violent women. Learning
about this material rather than simply feeling the emotional impact of it is one of the
factors that will make this book essential reading for anybody who comes into contact
with violent women.’ Anne Aiyegbusi, Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health
Thoughtful conceptualisations of female violence are put forward by Motz in a book
written primarily from a psychodynamic perspective. Motz describes how women, unlike
men, tend to display violence towards themselves or to those who represents extensions
of their selves (i.e. their children). Motz takes into account the influence of wider society
in understanding such violence and our reactions to it by highlighting how society holds
an idealised view of women that may interfere with the detection of any violence
perpetrated by them and the treatment given to them.’ Jane Ireland, Bulletin of the
International Society for Research on Aggression
‘…This book offers a fascinating, albeit uncomfortable, read and demonstrates some
of the difficulties of working with violent women…. the text is an important contribution
to the literature on female offending.’ Emma Wincup, Probation Journal
The Psychology of Female Violence,
second edition
Crimes Against the Body
Anna Motz
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2008 by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2008 Anna Motz
Paperback cover design by Lisa Dynan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Motz, Anna, 1964–
The psychology of female violence : crimes against the body/Anna Motz.
—2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-415-40386-3 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-415-40387-0 (pbk.)
1. Female offenders—Psychology. 2. Violence in women. 3. Abusive
mothers. 4. Self-destructive behavior. 5. Female offenders—Mental health
services. I. Title.
HV6046.M64 2008
616.890082—dc22
2007027295
ISBN 0-203-93091-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 978-0-415-40386-3 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0-415-40387-0 (pbk)
To the memory of Hans and Lotte Motz

Contents
Foreword to first edition by Dr Estela Welldon x
Foreword by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
13
PART I Violence against children
1 The development of maternal abuse: female perversion 15
2 Female sexual abuse of children 27
3 Maternal physical abuse 52
4 Fabricated or induced illness 80
5 Infanticide 110
137
PART II Violence against the self
6 Deliberate self-harm 139
7 Anorexia nervosa 171
193
PART III Violence against others
8 Battered women who kill 195
225
PART IV Clinical applications
9 Working with women who kill 227
10 Hiding and being lost: the case for women-only secure units 236
Conclusion 248
Bibliography 254
Index 268