Women offenders: Confronting the confrontingWomen offenders: Confronting the confronting
All In The Mind
Cases of filicide and infanticide confront us to our core -- but what leads women to kill their own children? And, from cognitive therapy to chemical castration -- most treatments for sexual offenders target men. Do women offenders require a different approach? Three female forensic specialists join Natasha Mitchell with a rare glimpse into a world riddled with taboo and revulsion.
30:16•23 Feb 2008
Women Who Offend: The Darkest Corners of Motherhood and Abuse
Episode Overview
- Maternal filicide often involves combinations of depression, psychosis, delusional beliefs about the child and intense life stress, but not all offending mothers have a diagnosable mental illness.
- Postpartum psychosis carries a significantly higher risk of infanticide than postpartum depression, so partners and clinicians need to take sudden severe changes very seriously.
- Denial or concealment of pregnancy can persist right up to birth, and many women in these situations receive no mental health screening before being sent home with a baby.
- Women who sexually abuse children are frequently overlooked by systems built around male offenders, leaving major gaps in assessment, treatment and even basic recognition.
- Effective work with any sex offender requires seeing the person as a human being with problems, rather than a monster, while still holding them accountable and protecting children.
“"If we're going to solve the problem, we're going to have to stop demonising people and start understanding them."”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction, trauma and intense stigma around crime and mental illness? This instalment of All In The Mind turns to some of the most confronting cases imaginable: women who kill their children and women who sexually abuse minors. Host Natasha Mitchell talks with forensic psychiatrists Dr Susan Hatters-Friedman and Dr Renee Sorrentino, and forensic nurse researcher Luanne Lawson.
Together they open up about working with women whose crimes many people see as unspeakable, and how that collides with their roles as clinicians, mothers, and ordinary women. You’ll hear how maternal filicide is studied, from risk factors like depression, psychosis, and overwhelming social stressors to the chilling reality that some mothers act from delusional beliefs of “saving” their children.
The conversation also touches on postpartum depression and psychosis, denial of pregnancy, and the missed chances for basic mental health screening in hospitals. The second half shifts to women who commit child sexual abuse. Lawson challenges the stereotype of the “grateful teenage boy” and shares how many women offenders describe their actions, relationships, and treatment experiences.
Sorrentino spells out how most intervention models and even legal definitions were designed with male offenders in mind, leaving big questions about what actually helps women change. What stands out is the tension between horror at the crimes and the need to see these women as complex human beings if prevention and rehabilitation are going to mean anything.
Anyone interested in mental health, justice, or child protection will find this a tough but important listen that asks hard questions about risk, responsibility, and how professionals keep both a “tough mind and tender heart” in the face of extreme behaviour. How do you hold compassion and accountability side by side when the stakes are this high?
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