'A Feminist Legal Engagement with Women Who Kill'

Siobhan's research will examine some of the socio-legal constructions of women who kill. Currently women who kill fall into something of an abstract category; they are 'not men'. Research has shown that men commit the vast majority of crime, as well as committing the most serious crimes. When women commit crime, they violate some of the prominent feminine gender norms ascribed to women by socio-legal discourse of appropriate femininity, in the realms of domesticity, sexuality and motherhood. As a result, when women commit particularly heinous crimes such as murder, the institution of law not only judges them based on the evidence of the crime they have committed, but also on their deviance from appropriate feminine behaviour. Consequently, Siobhan's research will focus on the construction of the category of ‘woman’ within the institution of law and how this construction affects the institutional responses to the actions of these women.

2013-2014

Law 101 - English Legal System

Law 103r - Law of Torts (2012 - present)

Law 104 - Criminal Law

Law 106 - Law of Contracts (2011 - present)

Law 240 - Family Law (2011 - present)

Law 350 - Gender and the Law

Siobhan is Assistant Dean of Lonsdale College.