Women’s homicide offending in Victoria

Little is known about the women who were convicted of violence offences in Victoria during the 19th and early 20th century. Unless a woman was executed (there was a total of five women executed in Victoria), attention has bypassed female homicide offenders. Using the Central Female Prisoner Records of Victoria, 95 women have been identified as homicide offenders between 1860 and 1920. Using this as the beginning, this presentation will consider who these women were and why the study of the women who weren’t victims of the gallows offers a deeper understanding of the operation of and women’s place within the criminal justice system.