Why women kill

"Indeed, women are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators. But when women do kill, in many cases the victim is a male partner or family member and there is a history of domestic abuse. Data and research suggests the majority of women on death row around the world have been sentenced to death for the crime of murder, and that most of these were committed in the context of gender-based violence."

"Prof Sandra Babcock, a clinical professor of law and faculty director at the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, has worked on or researched about 70 cases of women on death row for murder, mostly in the US, Malawi and Tanzania. Every one involved a background of abuse. There is not a case out there that has no mitigation, she says. There is always something."

"Zarbibi (not her real name) was 16 years old and four months pregnant when she murdered her husband by trying to decapitate him with a kitchen knife. The next morning, even though I was at the police station, I felt happy that he didn't live in the world any more, Zarbibi wrote in journals before she was released. Free from him now for the first time, I felt as light as a balloon that could just fly away."

Women commit a small share of violent crime worldwide; in 2021 they accounted for just 10% of homicides. Women are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators. When women kill, the victim is often a male partner or family member and the act frequently occurs against a background of domestic abuse. Most women on death row have been sentenced for murder committed in the context of gender-based violence. Research and casework in the US, Malawi, Tanzania and Iran show pervasive histories of abuse, forced or child marriage, and other mitigating circumstances. Survivors sometimes kill to escape ongoing violence but then face prosecution and death sentences.

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