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  • When She Was Bad

  • How and Why Women Get Away with Murder
  • Written by: Patricia Pearson
  • Narrated by: Sarah Mennell
  • Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

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When She Was Bad cover art

When She Was Bad

Written by: Patricia Pearson
Narrated by: Sarah Mennell
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Publisher's Summary

In this provocative book, award-winning journalist Patricia Pearson argues that our culture is in denial of women's innate capacity for aggression. We don't believe that women batter their husbands or abuse the majority of children in North America. We ignore the 200 percent increase in crime by women in a period when most crime statistics are dropping. Pearson weaves the stories of women such as Karla Homolka and Mary Beth Tinning (who smothered eight of her children) with the results of criminologists and psychiatrists to expose the myth of female innocence.

©1997, 1998, 2021 Patricia Pearson (P)2021 Random House Canada

What the critics say

Winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction

A Globe & Mail Best Book

"This important, necessary book highlights our urgent need to re-examine what we think we know about female aggression." (The Globe and Mail, Notable Book of the Year)

"A compelling, frightening look at women, not as victims of violence, but as perpetrators of it.... Gripping, controversial material that sheds light on violence and society, and how women can get away with murder." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Remarkable.... It is also profoundly disturbing, as it is the first significant sustained challenge against mainstream notions about violent femmes." (Quill & Quire)

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