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ABSTRACT
The socio-legal tendency to categorise female killers as either ‘mad’, ‘sad’ ‘bad’ has been recognised as reflective of narrow notions of women’s capacity for violence. If women only kill due to insanity, or as the result of prior victimisation (the ‘mad’ and ‘sad’), then those who fall outside this narrative (the ‘bad’) risk legal and popular characterisation as non-women and even non-human. I consider the role of gender performance in which of these narratives are imposed upon a defendant and suggest that queer women are particularly susceptible to framing as monstrous due to their transgression of gender norms. This article will focus on the murders of Edward Baldock and Stacey Mitchell, both killed by lesbian couples in Australia in 1989 and 2006 respectively. Despite the intervening years, the defendants in both were characterised as vampiric in court and the news media, to the exclusion of relevant evidence of mental illness. I will examine this discursive and textual construction of the lesbian offender through Julie Kristeva’s theory of abjection and explore how the creation of a legal monster justifies, and indeed necessitates, its expulsion from society, leading to harsher punishment for lesbian defendants.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Peter Rush, Dianne Otto, Tamsin Paige and Stacey Henderson for their many thoughtful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 R v Jervis [1991] Qd R 643, 648.
2 Ibid 643.
3 Ibid 648.
4 Ibid 649.
5 Ibid 649.
6 Belinda Morrissey, When Women Kill: Questions of Agency and Subjectivity (Taylor & Francis Group, 2003) 113 (‘When Women Kill’).
7 Ibid 649.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid 645.
10 Ibid.
11 Criminal Code 1995 (QLD)
12 R v Jervis (n 1) 645.
13 Stasinowsky v Western Australia (2009) 40 WAR 11 [97].
14 Ibid [87].
15 Ibid [110].
16 Ibid [112].
17 Ibid [116].
18 R v Stasinowsky (Supreme Court of Western Australia, Blaxell J, 7 March 2008).
19 Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, tr Leon S Roudiez (Columbia University Press, 1982) (‘Powers of Horror’).
20 Ibid.
21 Barbara Creed, The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (Taylor & Francis Group, 1993) 8.
22 Kristeva, Powers of Horror (n 19) 2.
23 Ibid.
24 Creed The Monstrous-Feminine (n 20) 10.
25 Ibid 8.
26 Ibid 10.
27 Ibid.
28 Morrissey (n 6) 2.
29 Creed (n 20) 62.
30 Ibid.
31 Jeffner Allen, Lesbian Philosophy: Explorations (Institute of Lesbian Studies, 1986) 38.
32 Ibid 59.
33 Siobhan Weare, ‘The Mad, the Bad, the Victim: Gendered Constructions of Women Who Kill within the Criminal Justice System’ (2013) 2(3) Laws 337, 338. See also Lizzie Seal, Women, Murder and Femininity: Gender Representations of Women Who Kill (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) 1; Morrissey (n 6).
34 Seal (n 31) 1.
35 Sylvie Frigon, ‘Mapping Scripts and Narratives of Women Who Kill Their Husbands in Canada 1866–1954’ in Annette Burfoot (ed), Killing Women: The Visual Culture of Gender Violence (Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2006) 3.
36 Ibid.
37 Seal (n 31) 2.
38 Penny Crofts, ‘Monstrous Wickedness and the Judgment of Knight’ (2012) 21(1) Griffith Law Review 72, 91.
39 Jamie Walvisch, Andrew Carroll and Tim Marsh, ‘Sentencing and Mental Disorder: The Evolution of the Verdins Principles , Strategic Interdisciplinary Advocacy and Evidence-Based Reform’ (2021) 28(2) Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 1, 4−6.
40 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (Routledge, 2nd ed, 1999) 10.
41 Kristeva (n 19) 4.
42 Harry M Benshoff, Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film (Manchester University Press) 1.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid 2.
45 Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, tr Robert Hurley (Vintage Books, 1978) 100.
46 James B Twitchell, Dreadful Pleasures: An Anatomy of Modern Horror (Oxford University Press, 1985) 7. On hungry women as abject, see Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (California University Press, 2003).
47 Benshoff (n 43) 1.
48 Crofts (n 36) 76.
49 Morrissey (n 6) 25.
50 Crofts (n 36) 92.
51 Anne Worrall, Offending Women: Female Law Breakers and the Criminal Justice System (Routledge, 1990) 82.
52 Seal (n 10) 63.
53 Ibid.
54 See, eg, Lombroso and Ferrero (n 59).
55 Beverley Skeggs, Becoming Respectable: Formations of Class and Gender (Sage Publications, 2002) 109.
56 Trial of James Hadfield (1800) 27 St Tr 1282.
57 Criminal Code Act (WA) 1912 (s 27); Criminal Code Act (QLD) 1995 (s 52(1)).
58 Criminal Code Act 1912 (WA) as at 16 Nov 2006.
59 Criminal Code Act 1899 (QLD) (s 27).
60 Criminal Code Act 1995 (QLD) (s 52(1)).
61 Seal (n 10) 51.
62 World Health Organization, ‘Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines for Personality Disorder’ in ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics (2019) ('ICD-11').
63 Hanna Pickard, ‘Choice, deliberation, violence: Mental capacity and criminal responsibility in personality disorder’ International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 40 (2015) 15, 16 citing Queen v M'Naghten (1843) 10 Cl and Fin 200.
64 Ibid.
65 ‘6B64 Dissociative identity disorder’ in ICD-11 (n 113).
66 Ibid.
67 Helen M Farrell, ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder: Medicolegal Challenges’ (2011) 39(3) Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online 402, 402.
68 Tracey Avril Wigginton (Queensland Supreme Court Mental Health Tribunal, 22 October 1990) cited in Morrissey (n 6) 112 (‘Wigginton’).
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 Stephen H Behnke, ‘Confusion in the Courtroom: How Judges Have Assessed the Criminal Responsibility of Individuals with Multiple Personality Disorder’ (1997) 20(3) International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 293.
74 Ibid.
75 Elyn R Saks and Stephen H. Behnke, Jekyll on Trial: Multiple Personality Disorder and Criminal Law (New York University Press, 1997).
76 Farrell (n 67) 404.
77 Ibid 405–8.
78 Wigginton (n 68).
79 Stasinowsky v Western Australia (n 13) [125].
80 Ibid [131].
81 Jamie Walvisch, Andrew Carroll and Tim Marsh, ‘Sentencing and Mental Disorder: The Evolution of the Verdins Principles , Strategic Interdisciplinary Advocacy and Evidence-Based Reform’ (2021) 28(2) Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 1.
82 Channon v The Queen (1978) 20 ALR 1 [4]–[5] (Brennan J).
83 Ibid.
84 R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269.
85 Leach v The Queen (2008) 183 A Crim R 1, 6 (Basten JA).
86 Jamie Walvisch and Andrew Carroll, 'Sentencing Offenders with Personality Disorders: A Critical Analysis of DPP (Vic) v O'Neill' (2017) 41 Melbourne University Law Review 417, 419.
87 Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) s 9(2)(g); Sentencing Act 1995 (WA) s 8.
88 See, eg, R v Tsiaras (1996) 1 VR 398, 400 (Charles, Callaway JJA and Vincent AJA).
89 R v Hayes [2010] QCA 96 [28].
90 Director of Public Prosecutions (Vic) v Daylia Brown [2020] VSCA 212 [5][89].
91 Ibid [68].
92 Stasinowsky v Western Australia (n 13) [45] citing Lauristen v The Queen (2000) 22 WAR 442, 452.
93 Ibid [154].
94 Ibid [79] citing R v Stasinowsky (n 18) (Blaxell J).
95 See Laura G Kirsch and Judith V Becker, ‘Emotional Deficits in Psychopathy and Sexual Sadism: Implications for Violent and Sadistic Behavior’ (2007) 27(8) Clinical Psychology Review 904; P Berger et al, ‘Sadistic Personality Disorder in Sex Offenders: Relationship to Antisocial Personality Disorder and Sexual Sadism’ (1999) 13(2) Journal of Personality Disorders 175.
96 Stasinowsky v Western Australia (n 18) [136][169][180].
97 Seal (n 10) 55.
98 Janet Ruffles, ‘Diagnosing Evil in Australian Courts: Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder as Legal Synonyms of Evil’ (2004) 11(1) Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 113.
99 Foucault (n 46) 100.
100 Crofts (n 36) 74.
101 Michel Foucault, ‘About the Concept of the “Dangerous Individual” in 19th-Century Legal Psychiatry’, tr Alain Baudot and Jane Couchman, (1978) 1(1) International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 1, 18.
102 Patrick Gillespie and Peter Hansen ‘Lovers’ Lane Slaying’ The Sunday Mail (Brisbane, 22 October 1989).
103 John Orr ‘Four Women Charged After “Satanic” Murder’ The Australian (Sydney, 23 October 1989). See, also, K Fitzpatrick ‘Human Sacrifice in Satanic Rituals “Inevitable”’ The Courier Mail (Brisbane, 23 October 1989).
104 Morrissey (n 6) 110.
105 Andrea Weiss, Vampires and Violets: Lesbians in the Cinema (Cape, 1992) 84.
106 Creed (n 20) 59.
107 Ibid 61.
108 Ibid 62.
109 Ibid 72.
110 AAP, ‘Sick lesbian vampire killers’, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, 26 January 2008); Daniel Emerson, ‘Vampire Killer in Escape Bid’, The West Australian (Perth, 3 June 2013); The Mirror, ‘Vampire Killers of Brit Jailed’ (London, 8 March 2008); Cox, Nicole, ‘Vampire affair in jail’, The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney, 23 November 2008); The Mirror, ‘Lesbians’ killing kiss’ (London, 26 January 2008); The Gold Coast Bulletin, ‘Lesbian grin over bloody murder orgy’ (Gold Coast, 26 January 2008).
111 The Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Trial Told of Blood-Drinking Frenzy’ (Sydney, 1 February 1991). See also Morrissey (n 6) 109.
112 Jenni Millbank, ‘From Butch to the Butcher’s Knife’ Sydney Law Review 18 451, 459.
113 Ibid 108.
114 R v Ptaschinski (Supreme Court of Queensland, Mackenzie J, 15 February 1991); Stewart MacArthur ‘Killer was “Devil’s Wife with Power to Control Minds”’ The Australian (Sydney, 5 February 1991).
115 R v Ptaschinski (n 74) (emphasis added).
116 Morrissey (n 6) 122; R v Jervis (n 1) 643.
117 R v Ptaschinski (n 74).
118 Jason Gagliardi ,‘Vampire Killing: Two Jailed’ Courier Mail (Brisbane, 16 February 1991).
119 Ibid.
120 Morrissey (n 6) 124.
121 Stephen Lamble, ‘Killer’s Mum Tells: “My Tracey Wouldn’t Drink Human Blood”’ Courier Mail (Brisbane, 17 February 1991).
122 Don Petersen and Jason Gagliardi, ‘Lust for Blood’ Courier Mail (Brisbane, 16 February 1991).
123 Morrissey (n 6) 472.
124 Lindsay Van Gelder, ‘Attack of the Killer Lesbians’ (1992) 2 Ms Magazine 80, 82.
125 Seal (n 10) 25.
126 Havelock Ellis, ‘Sexual Inversion in Women’ in Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Inversion (F.A Davis Company, 1908) 147, 122.
127 Ibid 147.
128 Cesare Lombroso and Guglielmo Ferrero, Criminal Woman, The Prostitute and The Normal Woman, tr Nicole Hahn Rafter and Mary Gibson (Duke University Press, 2004) 182. See, eg, John Cowie, Valerie Cowie and Eliot Slater, Delinquency in Girls (Heinemann, 1968).
129 Stasinowsky v Western Australia (n 18) [116].
130 Ibid [111].
131 Ibid citing R v Stasinowsky (n 13) (Blaxell J).
132 Ibid [117].
133 Ibid citing R v Stasinowsky (n 13) (Blaxell J).
134 Stasinowsky v Western Australia (n 18) [136].
135 Ibid.
136 Creed (n 20) 9.
137 Crofts (n 36) 76.
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Tegan Evans
Tegan Evans is a final year Juris Doctor student at Melbourne Law School. She is a 2022 Editor of the Melbourne Journal of International Law. She holds a first-class Masters of Global Media and Communications, and a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Relations and History), both from the University of Melbourne.