1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910822759603321

Autore

Oberman Michelle

Titolo

When mothers kill [[electronic resource] ] : interviews from prison / / Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : New York University Press, c2008

ISBN

0-8147-6251-4

0-8147-6219-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (190 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

MeyerCheryl L. <1959->

Disciplina

364.152/308520973

Soggetti

Women prisoners - United States

Women murderers - United States

Filicide - United States

Infanticide - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-173) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The saddest stories -- She's the world to me : the mother-daughter relationships described by mothers who committed filicide -- Fighting for love : filicidal mothers and their male partners -- Mothering : hopes, expectations and realities -- Punishment, shame and guilt -- Making sense of the stories -- Interactions with the state : holes in the safety nets -- The end of the story.

Sommario/riassunto

From the Publisher: Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer don't write for news magazines or prime-time investigative television shows, but the stories they tell hold the same fascination.  When Mothers Kill is compelling.  In a clear, direct fashion the authors recount what they have learned from interviewing women imprisoned for killing their children.  Readers will be shocked and outraged-as much by the violence the women have endured in their own lives as by the violence they engaged in-but they will also be informed and even enlightened.  Oberman and Meyer are leading authorities on their subject.  Their 2001 book, Mothers Who Kill Their Children, drew from hundreds of newspaper articles as well as from medical and social science journals to propose a comprehensive typology of "maternal filicide."  In that same year, driven by a desire to test their typology-and to better



understand child-killing women not just as types but as individuals-Oberman and Meyer began interviewing women who had been incarcerated for the crime.  After conducting lengthy, face-to-face interviews with forty prison inmates, they returned and selected eight women to speak with at even greater length.  This new book begins with these stories, recounted in the matter-of-fact words of the inmates themselves.  There are collective themes that emerge from these individual accounts, including histories of relentless interpersonal violence, troubled relationships with parents (particularly with mothers), twisted notions of romantic love, and deep conflicts about motherhood.  These themes structure the book's overall narrative, which also includes an insightful examination of the social and institutional systems that have failed these women.  Neither the mothers nor the authors offer these stories as excuses for these crimes.