Dangerous Women: Karla Homolka, Penny Boudreau and the Patriarchal Reasons Behind Their Crimes

DANGEROUS WOMEN: KARLA HOMOLKA, PENNY BOUDREAU AND THE PATRIARCHAL REASONS BEHIND THEIR CRIMES

Sarah West

Thesis

submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Arts with

Honours in Sociology

Acadia University

2010

This thesis by Sarah A. West

is accepted in its present form by the

Department of Sociology

as satisfying the requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Arts with Honours

Approved by the Thesis Supervisor

______

Prof. Barbara Moore Date

Approved by the Head of the Department

______Dr. Jim Sacouman Date

Approved by the Honours Committee

______Dr. Sonia Hewitt Date

I, Sarah A. West, hereby grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia

University to provide copies of the thesis, on request, on a non-profit basis.

______

Signature of Author

______

Date

iii

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Ms. Barb Moore for the time, effort and encouragement she has put into helping me complete this project. Dr. Anthony Thomson also deserves many thanks for the time spent helping me. Thank you to my family for encouraging and supporting me in writing my thesis as well.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ...... iv Table of Contents ...... v ABSTRACT ...... vi CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ...... 1 CHAPTER TWO: Methodology...... 7 Limitations ...... 13 Ethics ...... 17 CHAPTER THREE: Theoretical Frameworks...... 21 Psychopathology Theory ...... 21 Marxist Feminism ...... 25 Radical Feminism ...... 28 CHAPTER FOUR: Popular Culture ...... 31 CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusion ...... 41 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... Error! Bookmark not defined.

ABSTRACT

This thesis examines the cases of two Canadian female criminals Penny

Boudreau and Karla Homolka. Boudreau and Homolka are women who have been defined as both sociopathic and psychopathic. Both women were responsible for the torture and murder of someone in their immediate families. The central question that will be explored in this thesis is, does patriarchy contribute to the crimes Homolka and

Boudreau committed? In order to find the answer to the central question, I used 1) content analysis and secondary analysis; 2) theories of feminism and criminology; 3) analysis of popular culture materials.

Maria Mies and Catherine MacKinnon are two feminist theorists whose knowledge of patriarchal society contributed to this thesis. It is important to understand and explain why women will go to such lengths as murder to maintain a romantic, heterosexual relationship. Many women are under the impression that their lives are not complete unless they are one half of a heterosexual couple. Some women who are single believe they have not truly lived until they have experienced heterosexual love. Societal organizations are responsible for these thoughts by women about how life should be lived. This thesis ends with suggestions for further research.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Karla Homolka and Penny Boudreau are two women responsible for highly publicized crimes, and their names are known all over Canada because of these crimes.

Karla Homolka was given a plea bargain on May 14 1993, because she agreed to testify against her husband, Paul Bernardo. The case against Homolka and Bernardo concerned the abduction, sexual assault, torture, and murder of two schools girls in Ontario.

Homolka was convicted of two counts of manslaughter and served a sentence of twelve years in prison. Bernardo and Homolka also drugged, sexual assaulted, and accidently killed Homolka‟s younger sister. The crimes against these three young girls occurred between December, 1990 and April, 1992 (Kilty, Frigon 2007). Homolka was abused mentally, physically and sexually by her husband during the years that these crimes took place. The reasoning behind her plea bargain was that Homolka herself was a victim and, in order to save her own life, had to do everything her husband told her (McGillivray,

1998).

Penny Boudreau from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia murdered her twelve year-old daughter on the evening of January 27 2008. She reported her daughter, Karissa

Boudreau, missing when the child was still alive and sitting with her in her vehicle.

Boudreau killed her daughter by strangulation and planned the murder so that heavy snow would hide the body. Boudreau also tried to make the murder look like sexual assault by removing most of her daughter‟s clothing after she ended her life. Boudreau then disposed of her murder weapon and the child‟s clothes in different locations. Penny

Boudreau and her common law husband, Vernon Macumber, were having problems in

their relationship. Boudreau mentioned to an undercover police officer that Macumber told her to pick either her daughter or him (Bridgewater Justice Center, Boudreau, 2008).

The definition of a sociopath is “a person with a personality disorder manifesting in extreme antisocial attitudes and behaviours” (Barber, Fitzgerald, Howell, Pontisso

2005: 801). Karla Homolka and Penny Boudreau could be defined as engaging in extreme sociopathic behaviour, as murder and torture is considered to be antisocial.

Homolka and Boudreau could also be defined as psychopathic. The definition of a psychopath is, “a person suffering from a chronic mental disorder with violent behaviour; mentally or emotionally unstable person” (Barber, et al. 2005: 679). Both women were responsible for the torture and murder of someone in their immediate families; this is considered by Canadian society as very violent and unstable behaviour. Being defined as a psychopath or sociopath is exceptional or anomalous. These women are known for their horrific actions, making them exceptional.

This thesis explores explanations of these acts for cruelty. It is important to understand and explain why women will go to such lengths as murder to maintain a romantic heterosexual relationship. Many women are under the impression that their lives are not complete unless they are one half of a heterosexual couple. Some women who are single believe they have not truly lived until they have experienced heterosexual love. Society is responsible for these thoughts by women about how life should be lived,

According to MacKinnon, “the erotization of dominance and submission creates gender, and creates woman and man in the social form in which we know them” (MacKinnon,

2006: 258). Women see media all around them that glamorizes passiveness and reliance on men. Because of all of this propaganda, women believe that they are the submissive

gender; they feel the need to have a dominant male in their lives. Boudreau and Homolka are two of these women. They were brought down to a level of emotional weakness that resulted in taking power from weaker girls in order to fulfill their needs of dependency on a man. Patriarchal aspects of society should not have enough power to sway people in believing that women require a man to be happy. Boudreau and Homolka used innocent lives to fulfill what they believed was a requirement for being a woman.

Homolka and Boudreau also used children as a means to get what they desired.

The term filicide, or child-killing by parents, is the most extreme form of violence towards children, “which results in the child‟s death” (Wilczynski, 1995: 167). Homolka was not a parent but an older sister of Tammy for whose death she is responsible. She was an older sister that Tammy probably looked up to and viewed as a role model.

McGillivray suggests that Karla viewed Tammy as a potential threat because of Paul

Bernardo‟s interest in her sister (1998). Boudreau was a mother, and she murdered her daughter while her daughter begged her not to. All filicide causes can be classified into eleven different categories. The categories that Homolka and Boudreau are responsible for would fall under “the unwanted child” in the case of Karissa Boudreau and “jealousy of” for Tammy Homolka (Wilczynski, 1995).

In today‟s society, people are conditioned to see murderers as fitting into a stereotypical category. Boudreau and Homolka are criminals who do not fit into the stereotypical category of dangerous women (Kilty, Frigon 2007). Female criminals are usually from lower class families and have suffered abuse themselves as children

(Kruttschnitt, Corbone-Lopez, 2006). There is no mention in the documents I have researched that Karla Homolka or Penny Boudreau came from abusive homes as

children. Homolka was abused by her boyfriend and then husband Paul Bernardo.

Despite the fact that these women do not fit into the mold of a female offender, they are still women who somehow went down the wrong path. One was a mother, one was a sister, who tortured and killed just the same. This thesis will argue that these women could not see life without the men they cared about. They did not value innocent human lives above their own wants and needs. The happiness and love of their partners meant more to them than their own family members (Bridgewater Justice Center, Boudreau,

2008). The central question that will be explored in this thesis is, does patriarchy contribute to the crimes Homolka and Boudreau committed?

For this thesis I have studied scholarly and peer reviewed material as well as popular culture material. Based on the scholarly literature I have studied for this thesis, I have found four themes, which all of the resources have in common. The first theme is children being used and abused by the adults in their immediate families for personal gain. “McGillivray states, on 23 December, 1990, as a Christmas present to Bernardo,

Homolka drugged Tammy with Halcyion and Halothane, tranquilizers....She and

Bernardo took turns videotaping events and sexually assaulting her” (1998: 62). Penny

Boudreau thought it would be harder to lose her common law husband, Vernon

MacCumber, than to lose her daughter, the late Karissa Boudreau (Bridgewater Justice

Center, Boudreau, 2008: 7).

The second theme in the scholarly literature surveyed, such as Wilczynski‟s

“Child Killing by Parent: Social, Legal and Gender Issues,” is the motivation to torture or kill. The two women I am studying were desperate enough to do the unthinkable in order to satisfy their romantic interests. An example of this is stated in Penny Boudreau‟s court

documents: “the offender saw [the daughter] as a possible impediment to her relationship with MacCumber” (Bridgewater Justice Center, Boudreau, 2008: 7). Women often feel as though their lives are not yet fulfilled if they are single or without a counterpart in their life. Society itself is to blame for why some women feel incomplete without a man.

Once some women, such as Boudreau and Homolka, get a romantic interest, they will stop at nothing to keep them from leaving or from being unhappy (McGillivray, 1998).

The third theme I will be focusing on, based on my peer reviewed literature, is that both of these women were not stereotypical female criminals. Homolka was an attractive woman with blond hair and a year-round tan. “Homolka‟s involvement in these crimes caused a moral panic, and posed the question that if a white middle-class woman from a good home could commit such crimes, then how are we supposed to differentiate between good and bad women” (Kilty, Frigon 2007: 55)? Society has difficulty viewing pretty or innocent looking young women as horrifying rapists and potentiall killers.

Boudreau was a mother of a sweet young girl, who was well liked by all who knew her.

She was from a working class background and was gainfully employed. Female criminals are usually of poor economic status and have had prior run-ins with the law.

Both Boudreau and Homolka had no previous criminal records (Schissel, Mahood 1996).

A fourth theme explores how patriarchal structures may have influenced these women and their decisions and actions. Mies writes, “the privileges of middle-class women are....they are domesticated, isolated, dependent on a man, emotionally fettered and weakened, and tied down to an ideology that totally objectifies them” (Mies, 1986:

207). This quote bring into perspective why it was so important for Homolka and

Boudreau to do everything in their power to maintain their relationships, they felt completely lost and worthless without their male partners.

Feminist theories, as well as theories of criminology, are both vital to this thesis because Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka were criminal women. In order to better understand their actions and the motives behind their actions, theories and theorists in these fields must be analyzed.

CHAPTER TWO

METHODOLOGY

This work is comprised of a review of scholarly literary materials about the topic of female murderers, their motivations, and motives. In addition, popular culture articles about the crimes of Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka were used, as well as feminist and criminological theories. I conducted content analyses as well as secondary analyses on these works. The research required finding the appropriate sources of information in peer-reviewed books, court documents, and peer-reviewed journal articles. I also used the internet, MacLean’s Magazines as well as other magazines and newspapers to research the media coverage on Boudreau and Homolka.

This thesis was researched using qualitative research methods. “Unobtrusive recording is the way in which a researcher, though removed from the situation, gathers information about people‟s interactions or events in which they participate” (Kirby and

McKenna, 1989: 92). I decided to engage in qualitative research methods for my thesis because I wanted to understand the actions committed by Boudreau and Homolka based on concepts and classifications. Qualitative research uses concepts and classifications to understand human behaviour in a way that brings truth to the research (Jackson, 2003). It was important for me, as a qualitative researcher, to be completely submerged in the topic of study because I wanted to fully understand the crimes Boudreau and Homolka committed so that I could bring meaning and order to this area of study (Jackson, 2003).

It was important to me, as a qualitative researcher, to be completely submerged in the topic of study because I wanted to fully understand the crimes Boudreau and Homolka committed so that I could bring meaning and order to this area of study (Jackson, 2003).

The type of qualitative research in which I engaged was called secondary data analysis as well as content analysis. Secondary data analysis is relatively inexpensive because it relies on collecting data based on available material and can provide relatively complete data. I chose to do my thesis based on secondary data analysis because I thought it would be extremely difficult to conduct personal interviews with such notorious criminals such as Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka. Homolka lives in another country under a different name and Boudreau is in federal prison. I was also very interested in the literature published on the topics of Boudreau and Homolka, as well as the popular culture works on the subjects. I considered, that aside from personal interviews, the literature published on these women would be the next best source.

The study of crime from a psychological point of view is focused on aggression, psychopathology, violence, and sexuality (Gottfredson, Hirschi, 1994). This thesis will also focus on psychopathology and how it relates to the cases of Penny Boudreau and

Karla Homolka. Psychopathology is relevant to this study because it is the study of behavioural problems and whether or not these problems bring the person into trouble with the law (Gottfredson, Hirschi, 1994). Boudreau and Homolka both have behavioural and characteristic flaws that led them to react to situations violently and dangerously. Some of the characteristics that Boudreau and Homolka have that are considered to be “items of the psychopathy checklist are, superficial charm, low frustration tolerance and pathological lying and deception” (Blackburn, 1993). Although

Homolka was viewed as a beautiful, middle-class girl from a good background her crimes suggest some deep psychological flaws. Boudreau was at her wits end with her daughter and both of these women thought they could get away with their crimes by lying and

being deceitful. Psychopathology, along with feminist theories, will directly relate to this study.

I focus on the works of Catherine MacKinnon and Maria Mies as feminist theorists. Both theorists are compatible with Marxist feminism and radical feminism and they are both equated with socialist feminism. Marxist feminism focuses on the subordination of women starting with the institution of private property (Mies, 1986).

MacKinnon‟s focus is primarily on sexuality, which directly correlates with the idea that women are objects to be owned. Maria Mies has studied patriarchy and its problems at length, and her works are a great asset to this thesis. Marxist feminism identifies the capitalist economic system as the primary cause of female subordination. Mies focuses primarily on capitalist patriarchy in her work. Both Boudreau and Homolka were living as though they were truly “owned” by their husbands. They were so devoted to this lifestyle that panic occurred if they thought their men were unhappy for some reason.

Radical feminism is rooted in the oppression of women caused by men. Radical feminist theories differ from Marxist feminism because “radical feminism does not identify the capitalist economic system as the primary cause of female subordination”

(Nelson, 2006: 87). Radical feminists favour the opinion that the most fundamental and oldest oppression is the oppression of women by men (Nelson, 2006). In these terms,

Boudreau and Homolka are victims of patriarchal thinking; they cannot seem to accept that they are individuals who can function on their own and not as half of a heterosexual couple. These two women required a romantic interest to feel satisfied with their lives.

Content analysis involves analysing messages conveyed by the media, such as radio, television, or magazine and newspaper articles. These materials will be my focus.

The definition of content analysis is, “any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages” (Jackson, 2003:

203). Content analysis was beneficial in my study because I wanted to understand the differences between scholarly materials and popular culture works written about Penny

Boudreau and Karla Homolka.

In deciding the theories I should incorporate into my study, I examined theories that directly related to criminal women in search of power in a hierarchical and patriarchal society. Because Boudreau and Homolka are women who committed terrible crimes against youth and children, it was important to find theories that focused on why women would go to such lengths. I turned to Adie Nelson‟s Gender in Canada, Maria

Mies‟s Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, and Wendy Kolmar and Frances

Bartkowski‟s Feminist Theory to find feminist theories that would best suit my thesis.

These books covered a variety of feminist theories including the works of Maria Mies and Catherine MacKinnon who are well known feminist theorists. For a criminological theory that focuses on criminal women, such as Boudreau and Homolka, I turned to

Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi‟s A General Theory of Crime, Ronald

Blackburn‟s The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, and Clive Hollin‟s Psychology and

Crime. All of these works have chapters addressing psychopathological theory.

The popular culture materials I have studied included MacLean’s Magazine, articles from CanWest News and local newspaper websites from areas close to

Boudreau‟s home of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. The media‟s view of the Homolka and

Boudreau crimes focus on different aspects than those presented in academic literature.

The media focuses on how these actions make Homolka and Boudreau “bad” and “evil” people with criminal intent. These articles also interview the families of the victims and reveal their opinions on both the convicted criminals as well as their murdered family members. The press was interested in Homolka and Boudreau‟s reactions to their court trials and hearings, and how they handled these situations as indicative of „bad‟ people.

In the case of Penny Boudreau, one article has direct quotes from the late Karissa

Boudreau‟s father who believed Penny Boudreau was shedding crocodile tears over the death of their daughter (Patten, 2009). „Crocodile tears‟ reflects a common interpretation that the crying Penny Boudreau was doing in court was most likely because she was upset that her actions had been discovered and she was caught. Perhaps, as well, she was feeling guilty about murdering her own daughter. For Karla Homolka‟s trial, MacLean’s published an article that included interviewing Leslie Mahaffy‟s mother. Mahaffy was one of the young girls murdered by Paul Bernardo. Homolka was involved in the torture and murder. Leslie Mahaffy‟s mother talked about the statements that were read in court about her daughter‟s murder, the over-all trial of Karla Homolka, her late daughter, the

Homolka family, and the future (Jenish, 1993). It is important to read the media coverage of these crimes in order to get different opinions and views about the crimes. By only reading scholarly articles for this thesis, I would be getting a very one-sided view on these women and their crimes. The people interviewed for public articles, such as the ones included in this thesis, are powerful because of the emotion in the statements, which has an impacts on public perceptions.

In every public article about Karla Homolka‟s crimes, the common opinion is that she did not appropriately pay for her deeds. Karla Homolka was charged with manslaughter because she was partly responsible for the murders of her sister Tammy,

Leslie Mahaffy, and Kristen French even though she did not personally kill them (Jenish,

1993). The media perspective focuses on Karla Homolka‟s appearance in court, how she did not look remorseful and “remained as motionless as a mannequin” for most of the trial (Jenish, 1993: 15). Penny Boudreau is viewed by the media as a monster because she was a mother who voluntarily sacrificed her only child for the sake of a romantic relationship. It is commonly assumed that mothers are supposed to sacrifice everything for the sake of their children. Mothers are not supposed to sacrifice their children for the sake of something else.

It was easier to find media content on Karla Homolka because her crimes were highly publicized nationally and the court proceedings for both her and her husband, Paul

Bernardo, took a long time to conclude. Penny Boudreau‟s crime occurred in the winter of 2008, which was recent, and her case did not go to a court trial. Consequently, media coverage was not as extensive as was the coverage for Homolka and Bernardo.

MacLean’s Magazine had extensive articles about Homolka‟s conviction in 1993 and her earlier court dates. Coverage in MacLean’s was beneficial for understanding the popular culture‟s view of Karla Homolka. For media coverage on Penny Boudreau, I had to rely on the internet because her case is still quite recent. The website, thestar.com and

CanWest News were sources I used to obtain popular culture articles on Boudreau.

These resources covered not only the facts of Boudreau‟s crime, but also how she is

viewed because of her actions. I also visited newspaper websites such as thechronicalherald.ca and trurodaily.com.

The use of both the intranet (Acadia‟s internal library network) and the internet were beneficial to my thesis because I needed to collect information from as many sources as possible in a short amount of time. The intranet and internet made these searches possible and highly efficient. Some of the materials I wished to research for my thesis were unavailable at the Vaughn Memorial Library and unavailable in hard copy in general. When it was not possible to get a hard copy of the materials I needed, I would research to see if they were available online and go about accessing the information in an electronic format.

LIMITATIONS:

Theses based on library research are comprised of strictly secondary sources.

One of the limitations with this research method is not being able to come into direct contact with the subjects being studied. It would have been beneficial to this thesis to conduct personal interviews with both Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka. Conducting personal interviews with these women would have required very extensive ethics review and would have been very expensive and time consuming. It also would have been beneficial to this thesis to interview people who personally knew these women. My thesis advisor and I discussed interviewing Karissa Boudreau‟s father or other family members who were close to her and her mother. It would have been far easier to interview people who knew Karissa Boudreau rather than Karla Homolka because

Bridgewater is not far from Wolfville. However, it would have potentially been harmful

to them for me to interview these people because it would have been a very emotional time for them and it might have done more emotional harm than it would have benefited my thesis.

Another option for personal interviews could have been the law enforcement officers and court officials that were involved with these women‟s cases. Assuming the police and court officials who arrested Karla Homolka are still in the area, her trial occurred more than ten years ago; therefore, it would not have been difficult to request an interview. However, the information that police officers and court officials are legally allowed to disclose in interviews may not have been any more helpful than the information available to the public.

This thesis would have greatly benefited from the court documents from, not only

Penny Boudreau‟s crime, but also from Karla Homolka‟s. Some of the court proceedings from Homolka‟s husband, Paul Bernardo‟s trials were included in the scholarly journal articles available to the public. Bernardo‟s entire case relied on his defence counsel, John

Rosen, trying to discredit Homolka‟s testimony against Bernardo (Kilty and Frigon

2007). Seeing Homolka‟s crimes through her husband‟s lawyer‟s eyes would be extremely different from seeing her lawyer‟s opinions on her crimes. Having personal interviews with different sides of these women‟s cases would be beneficial for obtaining the full story about their crimes and all the opinions and perspectives that go with them.

Another limitation with the use of secondary data analysis and content analysis is that “secondary data analysis has problems with demonstrating the validity of its indicators” (Jackson, 2003: 199). It is important to always be aware of whether or not the source used for research is valid and trustworthy. Popular culture, such as magazines and

newspapers, may not be valid due to incorrect facts or biases in the writing. Data collected through content analysis can be questioned based on its validity because it may have been selected based on its dramatic impact rather than for its representativeness

(Jackson, 2003). If the author of the media article wanted to make a statement or emphasize a certain point about either Boudreau or Homolka, they would focus on certain parts of the crimes committed by these women and work that angle in their writing.

Different newspaper and magazine stories about the same events often have slight differences in the telling of the facts, making a person look either negative or positive to the readers. If an author has pre-disposed opinions about an event, or in this case, a story, it is up to them how they want to sell it.

Before deciding to use certain magazine articles and newspaper websites about the crimes of Karla Homolka and Penny Boudreau, I compared the factual information found within these works to scholarly works on these women. I wanted to make sure that

I could validate the media works by comparing them to work I knew to be valid and truthful in the factual evidence of these women‟s crimes.

The final limitation I am going to bring to attention in writing this thesis is the topic itself. Writing this thesis focused entirely on two criminal women who do not fit the mold of the average female criminal. It was important to find and analyze as many of those similarities as possible to connect Boudreau and Homolka. Homolka‟s crimes were more highly publicized than Boudreau‟s because the focus on Homolka‟s crimes was that these were sex crimes committed by a woman, which is considered to be a moral outrage.

I wanted to focus on Homolka‟s crimes based on the fact that she was responsible for the

death of young girls and avoid getting too deeply involved in the sexual aspects of these deaths because Boudreau‟s crime did not fit into that category.

I chose to focus my thesis on Boudreau and Homolka because they are both

Canadian women who had highly publicized crimes against children. Both Boudreau and

Homolka killed young girls to whom that they were related. Boudreau murdered her own daughter and Homolka was partially responsible for the death of her younger sister. As

Wilson notes, “child-killing has a number of common characteristics. It occurs between people who are very close and directly related by blood” (1985: 25). Because these women have distinct differences, it was important to focus primarily on the things they had in common, such as the above quote exemplifies. It was difficult to find materials that focused on explaining these women‟s crimes. Boudreau and Homolka‟s crimes were so highly publicised because they did not fit the mold and, because of this there was a lack of material that could explain why they did what they did. It was noted in a survey of criminal women that “the women reporting involvement in acts of violence have had significantly more arrests in their lifetimes, and were arrested for the first time at an earlier age” (Kruttschnitt and Carbone-Lopez, 2006: 331). Boudreau and Homolka do not fit this category at all because both of them had no previous criminal offences. Most studies on criminal women also noted that criminal women usually come from a poor economical background and most likely were the victims of child-abuse (Pollock et al.

2006). Boudreau and Homolka do not fit into these categories, either. I had to sift through extensive material to find explanations for the actions of Boudreau and Homolka which turned out to be quite difficult.

ETHICS:

In conducting research about notorious female criminals, Penny Boudreau and Karla

Homolka, I am participating in a “fundamental moral commitment to advancing human welfare, knowledge and understanding, and to examining cultural dynamics” (Tri-

Council Policy Statement, 2005: i.4). There are many benefits to this research. I believe that the knowledge learned in this thesis is necessary to better understand the patriarchal reasons behind Boudreau and Homolka‟s actions and may assist in combating further crimes of this nature. This research will not bring harm to Boudreau or Homolka but bring new reasoning about their crimes. Respect for Boudreau and Homolka‟s dignity, as well as privacy and confidentiality, were taken into consideration before writing this thesis. In writing this thesis, various ethical issues were avoided because of the methods used. However, some ethical issues were addressed. Secondary use of data was used, which required authorities‟ permission.

There are three general categories of benefits involving human subjects stated in the Tri-Council Policy Statement. The first focus is that, “the basic desire for new knowledge and understanding is the driving force for research” (Tri-Council Policy

Statement, 2005: i.4). I am fulfilling this focus of human subject research because I have the desire to understand the reasons behind these women‟s crimes and bring to attention ways to avoid this behaviour being repeated in years to come. The second focus is to bring knowledge that may benefit the topic of the research (Tri-Council Policy Statement,

2005). In the case of Boudreau and Homolka, the findings of this thesis may give new insights into patriarchy and criminality, which might lead to the exposure and eradication of such violent behaviour. In order to help prevent crimes of this magnitude from

occurring again, as much information as possible must be learned. The third and final benefit of human subject research is that, “research benefits particular groups and society as a whole. Sociological data about lifestyles may yield social reform” (Tri-Council

Policy Statement, 2005: i.4). This research will benefit other women being affected by a patriarchal society, as Boudreau and Homolka were being affected. Boudreau and

Homolka were driven to their crimes based on issues of power and subordination. In an ideal situation, this research will combat patriarchal problems affecting other potential female criminals before it‟s too late.

Working with existing materials helped me avoid various ethical issues. In showing respect for human dignity, “the cardinal principle of modern research ethics....”

This principle aspires to protect the multiple and interdependent interests of the person”

(Tri-Council Policy Statement, 2005: i.5). I did not have to worry about respecting the dignity of Boudreau and Homolka because all of my information was available to the public and, therefore, already had to go through strict ethics board approval before being published. The respect for privacy and confidentiality falls under the category of respect for human dignity (Tri-Council Policy Statement, 2005). I deducted that explaining and writing about these two female criminals would not put them in further harm or be an invasion of their privacy. “Standards of privacy and confidentiality protect the access, control and dissemination of personal information” (Tri-Council Policy Statement, 2005: i.5). Some of the materials I collected for this thesis seemed to be an invasion of privacy for the two female criminals, Boudreau and Homolka. However, this material was published and is available to anyone who requests it, so it cannot be against any ethical guiding principles. It is assumed that all of the information published about the crimes

these women committed was on a need to know basis for the public. It is important to know as much as possible about these crimes so that potential criminals know that these actions are not acceptable in today‟s society and they will be punished accordingly.

In writing this thesis, I was fortunate enough to have access to the case files of

Penny Boudreau through the Bridgewater Justice Center. These files could be defined as secondary use of data, which refers to data that is collected for a purpose other than research (Tri-Council Policy Statement, 2005). The ethical guidelines involving this type of data are very strict. In order to use the case files of Penny Boudreau, I had to have permission from the Bridgewater Justice Center because the files are considered identifying information. “Research Ethics Boards require that a researcher‟s access to secondary use of data involving identifying information be dependent on the informed consent of those who contributed data” (Tri-Council Policy Statement, 2005: 3.5). I received permission to use this data for my thesis from the Bridgewater Justice Center and organized a time and date when I could come and retrieve the data. This information on Penny Boudreau was extremely valuable to my thesis because all of the events leading up to the murder of her daughter, as well as the events leading up to her arrest, are documented.

Research involving women has historically been lacking. Research usually is conducted regarding men, and women are assumed to be similar to men so they will equally benefit from the research. Because of this mentality, data pertaining to only women is lacking, and treatments or interventions towards women can be harmful because of the differences between men and women (Tri-Council Policy Statement,

2005). My research focuses exclusively on the actions by Penny Boudreau and Karla

Homolka, two notorious violent offenders. This research will help society understand why these women committed these actions and the patriarchal reasons behind them. It is important to view women as separate from men because women are not viewed the same as men in today‟s society. Women are viewed as being the second gender; women are not appreciated nor treated the same as men and, because of these reasons, they react differently from men in given situations. Boudreau and Homolka were craving power over the men in their lives and they believed that murder was the only way to obtain this power.

CHAPTER THREE

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS

Feminist theories, as well as theories of criminology, are both vital to this thesis because Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka can be described as criminal women. In order to better understand their actions and the motives behind their actions, theories must be analyzed in these fields. The theories discussed in this thesis are psychopathology, radical feminism, and Marxist feminism. Today‟s society is based on a patriarchal system. Patriarchy means the rule of the fathers (Mies, 1986). Historically, as capitalism and patriarchy developed and grew, it became acceptable and common place for the man to be head of the household, do productive work, and practically make all of the decisions involving all concepts of family life. However, times have changed and women are known to be just as smart and just as successful as men. Unfortunately, patriarchy is still at work. As Mies argues, “today‟s male dominance goes beyond the

„rule of fathers‟, it includes the rule of husbands, of male bosses, of ruling men in most social institutions, in politics, economics” (1986: 37). Men think of themselves as being more powerful than women simply because of their gender. Boudreau and Homolka were craving power in a male-dominated world.

PSYTHOPATHOLOGY THEORY

Psychopathology theory helps explain some the reasons behind Boudreau and

Homolka‟s actions. According to The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, “psychopathic personality and personality disorder is a persistent disorder or disability of mind which results in abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct” (Blackburn, 1993:

80). Psychopathic is a term that has been used interchangeably with sociopathic.

Sociopathic is an umbrella term for any form of socially deviant behaviour (Blackburn,

1993). Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka are criminal women who can fall under the categories of both psychopathic and sociopathic. This thesis will focus on why Boudreau and Homolka can be considered psychopathic.

There are two divisions of psychopathic, primary and secondary. Boudreau and

Homolka may be defined as primary psychopaths because their “antisocial behaviour reflects uninhibited instinctual expression unmodified by conscience or guilt”

(Blackburn, 1993: 81). Boudreau and Homolka both planned out their actions extremely well before conducting them. Boudreau waited until a heavy snow fall was expected before she killed her daughter in order to cover her body (Bridgewater Justice Center,

2008). Boudreau tried to make the murder look like a sexual assault and then went home to her common law husband. Homolka went with Bernardo to hunt down a young girl to take back to their house and to torture. Homolka then cleaned up the scene after the girl was murdered and entertained her parents the next day for lunch (Pearson, 1998). These women felt no guilt for their actions. They planned ahead to achieve their goal and dealt with cleaning up all of the evidence after their crimes had been committed. These women committed pre-meditated crimes in order to maintain their desire.

The criminal acts that these women committed were in direct relation with the way they saw themselves as a part of society, a patriarchal society. Boudreau and

Homolka wanted to accomplish something that would solidify their relationship with the men in their lives. They wanted to keep them content for their own personal reasons and for power. “Aggression seems uniquely relevant to the explanation of crime, suggesting as it does the source of differences among people in their inclination to resort to force in

pursuit to private interests” (Gottfredson & Hirschi 1994: 65). Both of these women resorted to violence to get what they wanted. Penny Boudreau felt that her common-law relationship with Vernon MacCumber had no room in it for her daughter, Karissa

Boudreau. Penny felt that losing her daughter would be less difficult than losing

MacCumber, whom she felt was displeased with the fact that she had a child. She chose to gain power in the relationship by removing her daughter whom she saw as the problem

(Bridgewater Justice Center, Boudreau, 2008). Karla Homolka was being physically, sexually, and emotionally abused by her husband, Paul Bernardo. Karla felt the only way she could avoid being abused was to empower her husband by doing everything he asked of her, and these actions resulted in the deaths of her younger sister as well as two other young girls (Pearson, 1998).

Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka may be classified according to many of the items on the “psychopathy checklist” (Blackburn, 1993: 83). Boudreau proved that she was a pathological liar and was very deceptive. She had a lack of true remorse and guilt over the death of her daughter and lack of emotional; depth otherwise, she would not have killed her own daughter. Boudreau was callous and lived a parasitic lifestyle because she was so dependent on her common-law husband. This woman was the definition of being an irresponsible parent (Blackburn, 1993). Penny Boudreau also had frequent, intimate relationships with several men. She was involved not only with her current common-law husband, Macumber, but also her daughter‟s father as well as his brother, both of whom acted as fathers to Karissa (Bridgewater Justice Center, 2008).

Boudreau was not drinking or doing drugs when she murdered or covered up the murder

of her daughter. These examples of Boudreau‟s behaviour directly correspond with characteristics common among psychopaths.

Karla Homolka had everyone in her neighbourhood as well as in her family fooled into believing that she was just the girl next door. Homolka had superficial charm, egocentricity, and a grandiose sense of self-worth (Blackburn, 1993). She was extremely self centered and was agitated with her father for not being more excited about her wedding after the death of her young sister, and his youngest daughter, Tammy Homolka

(Pearson, 1998). Karla Homolka was easily frustrated, was a pathological liar, and lacked remorse or any real sense of guilt. Homolka spoke at trial about how she felt numb after the death of her sister. In a letter she wrote to a friend after the tragedy, she was angry because her father felt the need to mourn Tammy instead of putting all of his time and money into her wedding (Pearson, 1998). Homolka lied multiple times on trial and did not feel true sorrow or remorse for her sister‟s premature death. It was noted that

Karla Homolka did not cry at all during her multiple times in court (Eate, 2007). It would be assumed that, after being told and shown pictures of all of the horrible things done to innocent girls, Homolka would at least shed a tear. Homolka was also impulsive and failed to take responsibility for her actions. She blamed them all on Paul‟s abuse towards her and she was also not under the influence of any drug or alcohol when committing her crimes (Blackburn, 1993). All of the actions listed above reflect psychopathic tendencies. There is no concrete measure to determine if someone is a psychopath, but there is theoretical discussions based on psychopathy. “Since psychopathy is a theoretical construct rather than a palpable entity, there can be no “true” measure”

(Blackburn, 1993: 84). Psychopathy theoretical concepts are used in this thesis to better understand the actions of Boudreau and Homolka.

Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka can be classified as candidates for psychopathological study because psychopathology is also a branch of criminology.

“Modern psychological positivists eschew the study of crime and criminality in favour of a focus on “aggression,” “psychopathology,” “violence,” or sexuality,” dimensions of behaviour that can be identified without the assistance of the state” (Gottfredson and

Hirschi 1994: 64). Boudreau and Homolka both have many of the factors that define a psychopath. These factors have brought these women in direct contact with the law because they have committed extremely violent and unacceptable actions in today‟s society. These women were viewed as average, working class women, yet they committed uncharacteristic psychopathic murders. Psychopathology is a study that is interested in behaviour that is brought on by underlying pathology and that may or may not bring a person into conflict with the law (Gottfredson and Hirschi 1994).

MARXIST FEMINISM

Marxist feminism focuses on the subordination of women, which began with the institution of private property. “Women thus became the property of men and the first oppressed class” (Nelson, 2006: 86). In the domestic sphere, the household is directly linked to how well capitalism and society function in general. Two feminist theorists included in this thesis are, Catherine MacKinnon who is a feminist theorist focused on sexuality and Maria Mies who is a feminist theorist dedicated to shedding light on various feminist theories. Homolka and Boudreau‟s sexuality greatly revolved around their abilities to keep a love interest. Catherine MacKinnon‟s theory and Marxist

feminism are important to my thesis because Homolka and Boudreau‟s household or private sphere dominated everything else in their lives. They were completely run by the male love interest in their lives.

Catherine MacKinnon explains that male dominance is essentially sexual

(MacKinnon, 2005: 476). Men naturally crave being dominant and in control it is bred into them. Being dominant makes men feel masculine and as though they are being how a man is supposed to be. Boudreau‟s common-law husband, Vernon Macumber, and

Homolka‟s husband, Paul Bernardo both instilled fear in their spouses by acting as though they would either harm or leave them. By instilling fear, these men made

Boudreau and Homolka crave reassurance therefore gaining control over them. Penny

Boudreau thought that Macumber was making her choose between her daughter and him.

She was under the impression that he was going to leave her if she continued having her daughter in her life. Boudreau was desperate not to lose Macumber and decided that her daughter had to go. Karla Homolka had to obey everything Bernardo asked of her because, if she refused, he would beat and abuse her. Homolka had to make Bernardo feel powerful in order to save herself from harm. Homolka went extraordinarily far in pleasing her husband.

The relationships between Boudreau and Macumber, and Homolka and Bernardo were very unequal. “Sexuality is located in a theory of gender inequality, meaning the social hierarchy of men over women...sexuality is a construct of male power: defined by men, forced on women” (MacKinnon, 2005: 476). These women could never relax in their relationships. They were constantly trying to change things about their own lives and about themselves to please their husbands. Boudreau thought Macumber wanted her

to get rid of her own daughter. Homolka gave her husband sexual access to her younger sister because she, herself, wasn‟t a virgin and Bernardo was displeased about this.

These women had to work very hard to maintain what they thought made them whole: the men in their lives. They could not see themselves without their husbands and were completely submissive to them. “Dominance eroticized defines the imperatives of its masculinity; submission eroticized defines its femininity” (MacKinnon, 2005: 477).

Society‟s expectations of femininity are fundamentally patriarchal. It is socially acceptable for women to be meek and mild and obey men, not be equal to them.

Macumber wanted to leave Boudreau after he found out she murdered her daughter

(Bridgewater Justice Center, 2008) and Homolka had to divorce her husband in order to make a plea bargain (Pearson, 1998). In the end, these women lost what they had committed crimes to protect.

In order to abolish the situation in how women are seen as private property the same as animals or land, a radical transformation is required. For radical feminists, both capitalism and socialism must no longer be run according to patriarchal values (Nelson,

2006). If Boudreau and Homolka had felt empowered by their husbands instead of contently having to empower them, they would probably not have committed their crimes. It would have been beneficial for Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka to engage in feminist separatism. Feminist separatism is women separating themselves from everything related to the male gender. Some examples of this separatism are from institutions, relationships, roles, and activities that are defined by men. These are activities that are male-dominated and that operate solely for the benefit and privilege of men (Frye, 2005). It would have been healthy for these women to go about their lives in

a way that benefited them instead of just their husbands. To empower only them would have, at first, probably been difficult because these women would not be used to being in charge. “If there is one thing women are queasy about it is actually taking power” (Frye,

2005: 337). It is against patriarchal rule for women to be in any position of power. Men are supposed to be in control and in power of women, and everything they do. It is socialized into women to fear too much power. Too much power is not feminine and is looked down upon by men who are used to the rules of a patriarchal system being followed.

RADICAL FEMINISM

Radical Feminism is rooted around the oppression of women caused by men.

Patriarchy is the main cause for female subordination and oppression (Mies, 1986).

Patriarchy, which includes sexism, is a social system in which males have all of the authority. Patriarchal systems believe that men are to dominate women (Nelson, 2006).

Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka lived in a patriarchal system inside of their own homes. They believed that the only way to have happiness was if they were one half of a heterosexual couple. Patriarchal values were instilled into these women. Because of the values that men have more power than women and more access to what is valued in society, men occupy positions of control that permit them to shape and mold most of the aspects of women‟s lives (Nelson, 2006). Radical feminists want to eliminate patriarchy so that women can achieve equal rights with men.

Karla Homolka was both sexually and physically abused by her husband, Paul

Bernardo. She was completely subordinate in that relationship and seemingly had no power over what was done to her. “Radical feminists were among the first to

define...sexual and physical violence against women as feminist issues” (Nelson, 2006:

89). If Homolka had been aware of feminism and educated in women‟s studies, perhaps she would not have gotten herself into the situation of being married to a rapist and an abusive husband. Perhaps Homolka would not have found it necessary to commit her crimes if she had been more aware of the affects of her patriarchal life style. Paul

Bernardo believed his wife was his property, so he was allowed to abuse her. By forcing his wife to be subordinate to him, Bernardo was ensuring that she knew he had all of the power in their relationship. Bernardo wanted Homolka‟s number one focus to always be on him. Men are oppressive and exploitive towards women because they can gain from this behaviour. They can gain control, power and attention. “Exploitation is a historical- and not a biological or psychological- category which lies at the basis of men-women relation. It was historically created by patriarchal tribes and societies” (Mies, 1986: 36).

Penny Boudreau‟s common-law husband Vernon Macumber stated that he had not been involved in the plan to kill Penny‟s daughter Karissa Boudreau. However, Macumber did want Penny to choose between him or her daughter. This demand is also a form of oppression. Boudreau was being forced to get rid of anything that was taking away from the attention she was giving Macumber. Macumber required more power over Penny.

He felt he was being neglected because Penny had power over her daughter and her daughter also took up her time and energy. Boudreau and Homolka are victims of patriarchal values in their private sphere. They could not stand up to their spouses because they felt lost without them. These women could not see their lives without their spouses. “Patriarchy pervades not only the economic institution but also, more oppressively, the family, marriage.... Social change, therefore, is necessary in both the

public and private domains” (Nelson, 2006: 88). Because these paternal ideologies were not eradicated before Boudreau and Homolka became complete submerged in their oppressive lifestyles, extreme actions were taken, which ended the lives of their family members as well as innocent young women. There should have been an equal amount of power between these two women and their spouses because then it would not have been necessary for these women to feel the need to empower their husbands through violence.

“The elimination of patriarchy would lead to the eventual disappearance of these socially created gender differences” (Nelson, 2006: 88). In today‟s society, women should be given every right and every advantage that men are given.

The theoretical aspects explained in this chapter and applied to Karla Homolka and Penny Boudreau relate to the topics of popular culture covered in the following chapter of this thesis. Although the popular culture chapter will focus on aspects, often the cases not covered by scholarly articles, the articles examined in the next chapter also touch on patriarchal values that could explain the actions of Homolka and Boudreau.

CHAPTER FOUR

POPULAR CULTURE

The popular culture materials I have studied include MacLean’s Magazine,

Chatelaine, as well as other news sources and local newspaper websites from areas close to Penny Boudreau‟s home of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. The media‟s view of the

Homolka and Boudreau crimes focus on different aspects than those highlighted in academic literature. The media focuses not only on the facts of their crimes, but also how these actions make Homolka and Boudreau “bad” and “evil” people. These articles also interview the families of the victims, officials involved in these criminal cases and their opinions about both of the convicted criminals. The press was also interested in

Homolka and Boudreau‟s reactions to their court trials and hearings, and how they handled these situations.

How Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka are described in popular culture is very interesting because it is almost always different from scholarly works. When the facts of these crimes are in print, the feelings that the authors express about these women comes through in their writing. All of the people quoted in these articles express hatred and fear towards these women not because they knew the young girls they murdered, but because this kind of behaviour is not tolerated in society. The authors of these articles want everyone to be convinced that Boudreau and Homolka truly are horrible. They accomplish this through writing descriptive and heartfelt articles about their crimes. It is important to read the media coverage of these crimes in order to get diverse opinions and views. By reading only scholarly articles for this thesis I would be getting a very one-

sided view on these women and their crimes. The people interviewed for public articles such as the ones I am discussing in this thesis, exercise power over people‟s perceptions because of the emotion evident in their statements.

Popular culture involving the crimes of Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka showed a different side of the events that occurred. Both of these women lived in small

Canadian towns. Researching newspapers based in their home towns puts into perspective the effect these women had on their local communities. Penny Boudreau was living in the small town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia when she committed the murder of her only child, Karissa Boudreau. Marianne White of CanWest News digs deeper into

Penny Boudreau‟s case. She focuses on how people often assume that murder only happens in big cities, to drug addicts, or people who have been in trouble with the law.

Penny Boudreau did not fit this criminal stereotype. White seeks the knowledge of a criminologist about Boudreau‟s thoughts that losing her daughter would be less painful than losing her love interest (White, 2009). The criminologist noted that the majority of parents would have made a different choice than Boudreau, and that is why this case is so puzzling. Cases that are very rare and are difficult to understand are always the ones that generate public attention (White, 2009). People become nervous when professionals cannot understand why a crime occurred. Boudreau did not have a history of violence or drug or alcohol problems. Boudreau was not diagnosed with a mental illness. She appeared to have normal social and intellectual skills. Boudreau was employed and had access to resources as well as financial support. Statistically, at least some of these factors should have been present in Boudreau because people who murder children usually present some form of pathology. White also stresses multiple times in her article

that children murdered by their mothers are usually less than two years of age and are highly unlikely to be murdered over the age of four years (White, 2009). Karissa

Boudreau was twelve years old when her mother murdered her. Karissa Boudreau was old enough to look into her mother‟s eyes as her mother strangled her and say, “Mommy, don‟t” (Meaney, 2009:1). Even psychological professionals are having difficulty understanding Boudreau‟s crime, the age of her daughter and the way in which she was murdered. “Everything about this case is unusual, including the age of the victim and the fact she was strangled. It's such a sorry case" (White, 2009: 2).

The wording in some of the articles written about these women reflects the anomalous nature of the crime. In the Canadian Press articles about Penny Boudreau, the author is almost in disbelief that a mother could do what Boudreau did to her only child.

For example, undercover agents gained Boudreau‟s trust by telling her they were members of a crime circle and they could possibly make her “problem go away”

(Meaney, 2009). Paul Boudreau, who is Karissa Boudreau‟s father and Penny

Boudreau‟s ex-husband, talked with reporters outside of the courtroom that he was sickened by his ex-wife and added, “the options were there, and you know for a parent to make that decision, I still can't comprehend it” (Meaney, 2009: 2).

Boudreau also evidently admitted to her crime and demonstrated the method that she had used to kill her daughter (Meaney, 2009). She even took the undercover agents to the scene of the murder. The author of this article display their feelings and thoughts about Boudreau in every sentence of this article. They are disgusted, shocked, and appalled that this woman could be so selfish. The community of Bridgewater shares the author‟s disgust with Penny Boudreau. It was stated in one article about Boudreau that,

while she left the court room, spectators had gathered to hurl insults and to jeer at her

(White, 2009).

The articles written during Karla Homolka‟s court appearances are equally as hateful towards her as those written about Boudreau. One article in MacLean’s Magazine describes the scene on the day of one of Homolka‟s court appearances. The streets are normally deserted in St. Catherine‟s Ontario at 5:30 in the morning. However, on this particular day, reporters, photographers, TV camera operators and a few curious local residents are already gathered outside the city courthouse. By 9 a.m., an hour before the trial was scheduled to begin, some 200 people were lined up four abreast from the courthouse entrance to the street. “An unknown member of the crowd shouted out, „here they are!‟ Camera shutters began clicking, and a bearded spectator with a ponytail yells:

Bitch! Seconds later, the van disappears into the building and a steel door closes”

(D‟Arcy, 1993: 16). The residents of St. Catherine‟s did not appreciate Karla Homolka committing violent crimes right under their noses; they made their feelings known.

St. Catherine‟s residents feel as though Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo have tainted the good name of their community. The court ordered a publication ban on the information brought to the trials of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo not only because it would jeopardize their right to a fair trial but also because the information about the murders was so horrifying. The people who were in the court room during these trials will never forget what they had heard, and they all made their own judgements about

Homolka. One man asked how people could not be affected after hearing exactly what happened to the victims of Homolka. The people in the court room “looked numb and

incredulous to hear—from the videos they didn‟t see—accounts of the physical abuse and eventual deaths of two girls” (Bain, 1995: 44). It was shocking and disturbing (Bain,

1995) for St. Catherine‟s residents to stomach what had occurred in their own community by their own neighbours. A student who knew Kristen French personally voices his opinion about Homolka: “I don‟t know how she could get so wrapped up in him

[Bernardo] that she could abandon all of her morals” (Jenish, 1993: 17). The community and the country, publicity ban or not, came to their own conclusions about why Homolka did what she did. How could someone become so infatuated with a love interest that they would kill innocent children as well as their own flesh and blood?

For Karla Homolka‟s trials in the early 1990‟s, MacLean’s did an article that included interviewing Leslie Mahaffy‟s mother. Mahaffy was one of the young girls who was murdered by Paul Bernardo. Homolka was involved in the torture and murder.

Leslie Mahaffy‟s mother talked about the statements that were read in court about her daugther‟s murder, the over-all trial of Karla Homolka, her late daughter, the Homolka family, and the future (Jenish, 1993). It is important for readers to comprehend fully how many people were affected by Homolka‟s selfish actions. Interviewing Leslie Mahaffy‟s mother showed that Homolka not only deserved to serve time for the lives she took away, but also for the lives from whom she caused suffering and that she changed forever. The mayor of St. Catherine‟s, as well as other residents, was interviewed by Chatelaine in

1994 voicing his opinion about Homolka‟s sentence of just twelve years. He agreed with other residents‟ statements, such as, “she is going to be out walking the street...that really ticks me off” (Posner, 1994: 32). This attitude about Homolka‟s early freedom is held by the mayor because he is a “firm believer in capital punishment...an eye for an eye”

(Posner, 1994: 32). It does not seem fair to all of the people affected by Homolka‟s actions that she served just twelve years in prison instead of what could have been a life sentence. Kristen French became not only the daughter of her parents, in death; she became the daughter of St. Catherine‟s (Posner, 1994). After Kristen French went missing, the community was forced to come together, to help every member through this difficult time. Kristen‟s memory will live for many years because of her community‟s response to her death. Feelings of guilt linger in St. Catherine‟s, as well. A psychotherapist referring to the Bernardo home says, “Kristen was in there, she was screaming, and we didn't hear her. We walked by and waved and acted normal.... I wonder how far the pain had to go before she wasn't there, before she went crazy?"

(Posner, 1994: 33). The depths of these quotes, which would probably never be found in scholarly works about Homolka or Boudreau, make these magazine and newspaper articles an emotional read. These articles were not published just to make the facts known but to make the emotions of the people involved known as well.

Both Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka cried during some part of their criminal pasts. Penny Boudreau cried on television during her false plea for her daughter‟s safety as well as during her court appearance. Boudreau cried both before and after her daughter‟s body was found. She cried during her plea on television begging her daughter to come back home and when she was pleading for everyone‟s help in finding the twelve year old. Before it was suspected that Boudreau had actually murdered her own daughter, she was pitied by all who heard that her only child was missing. All of Nova

Scotia knew about the television broadcast that showed Boudreau crying in sadness and fright for her daughter‟s safety, or so they thought (Patten, 2009). They felt sadness and

pity for her because no one can imagine losing their only child. However, Penny

Boudreau dared to cry again at her court appearance after she was charged with the murder of her daughter. One article has direct quotes from the late Karissa Boudreau‟s father who believed Penny Boudreau was shedding crocodile tears over the death of their daughter (Patten, 2009). After she had dared to try to fool all of Nova Scotia, nobody felt sadness for her or pity. Nobody believed her tears were real, yet she cried anyway because she pitied herself and the situation she now found herself in.

Homolka was noted as being almost in-human at her court dates because she moved so little and did not show emotion. However, in 2005 an article in the Chronical

Herald newspaper described Homolka‟s first court appearance since her testimony against Paul Bernardo in 1995 (LeSalle and Wyatt 2005). Homolka was reported to have cried when the judge again mentioned her sister Tammy‟s death and how she was partly responsible for it. The media works studied in this thesis show that nothing has changed the majority of people‟s feelings about Homolka even after all of this time she has spent in prison for her crimes. One man interviewed by the Chronicle Herald commented on

Homolka‟s tears by saying, “if she feels bad, it‟s because of the predicament she now finds herself in” (LaSalle and Wyatt 2005: A1). The views on Homolka‟s tears were that she was only crying because of where her actions in the past have gotten her. Homolka is a very selfish individual and she was probably showing emotion because of how her life has turned out, not because of the young women that died because of her. Even after

Homolka‟s twelve year sentence was drawing to a close, people still continue to be angered by the mention of her name. They were terrified that she had not learned her lesson and would continue her crimes upon her release in July 2005. It is mentioned in

the 2005 article that “everybody is talking about her [Homolka] and saying her sentence is too lenient... they‟re talking about the deal with the devil” (LaSalle and Wyatt, 2005).

Emotions have not changed since Homolka was first charged in the murders of Kristen

French and Leslie Mahaffy. People still believe she was let off too early and they want her to continue to pay for her wrong doings. No one believes Homolka‟s tears and no one wants to take the chance that she will find another „Paul Bernardo‟ with whom to commit crimes upon her release.

In every article about Karla Homolka‟s crimes the common opinion is that she did not pay appropriately for her deeds. Karla Homolka was charged with manslaughter because she was partly responsible for the murders of her sister Tammy, Leslie Mahaffy, and Kristen French even though she did not personally kill them (Jenish, 1993). The media perspective focuses on Karla Homolka‟s appearance in court and how she does not look remorseful and “remained as motionless as a mannequin” for most of the trial

(Jenish, 1993: 15).

Penny Boudreau is viewed by the media as a monster because she was a mother who voluntarily sacrificed her only child for the sake of a romantic relationship. In the majority of articles written about Penny Boudreau and her warped sense of loyalty, the authors and those interviewed have much to say about her maternal instincts or lack thereof. Vernon Oickle from Southshorenow.ca states that Penny Boudreau committed not just murder, “it was the ultimate act of betrayal ...it's a heinous crime, an act so horrendous that most of us cannot even contemplate such evil” (Oickle, 2009: 1).

Maternal instinct implies that mothers are supposed to sacrifice everything for the sake of

their children. Mothers are not supposed to sacrifice their children for the sake of something else. Penny Boudreau was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for twenty years from the date of her arrest. She can, however, apply for parole after fifteen years in prison (Adsett and Barber 2009). Women who can steal away the life of their own child will not be treated easily by the parole board. Members of the community of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia must be mortified that someone so evil could call Bridgewater home. Bridgewater is a small, close-knit community and everyone was affected by Karissa Boudreau‟s death. There was outrage at Boudreau over how she even dare call herself a mother. The Bridgewater community was offended and furious that

Boudreau would lie to them about her crimes on television and actually have the nerve to beg them to help find Karissa. Perhaps residents started to think of Boudreau as not the grieving and worried mother, but an actual prime suspect when she moved from

Bridgewater to Halifax before she was even charged with the murder of her daughter.

Another aspect of media articles about Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka are the pictures of these women that are included. These pictures are taken and chosen for articles to make a statement to entice the reader to want to read the story behind the picture. In some pictures of Penny Boudreau, she is seen shielding herself from the media coming and going from court. In other pictures she is crying, and in one she is wearing a wooden cross necklace. These pictures want to show the readers a certain side of these women and allow them to make their own decisions about the person and their crimes. In order to create certain decisions about the person pictures are deliberately chosen. There is one very well known picture of Karla Homolka that is used in many articles about her. Karla‟s eyes are showing no emotion. They look like the eyes of a

cadaver. All of her other features are impeccably made up. Her hair is bleached blonde and is styled perfectly, her makeup is flawless, and she is an attractive woman. This photo of Karla shows to the readers and to Canada that Karla Homolka may look like an attractive young woman but once you look deeper, look into her eyes, the truth comes out. The attractive, friendly woman is the woman who lured young girls to their deaths.

The eyes of that woman show no emotion, those eyes are the ones that assisted in the committing of these crimes and deaths.

It was beneficial to this thesis to dedicate a chapter exclusively to popular culture research. This chapter allows readers to see two different kinds of literature written about

Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka. Scholarly works display factual knowledge about the crimes and the reasons behind them. Popular culture allows the reader to see the emotions that have resulted from these crimes. Popular culture focuses not only on the facts, but also on the crimes that influenced and hold an impact on individuals close to the victims. The physical appearances and the emotions Boudreau and Homolka portrayed or did not portray in court and in the media are written and shown in newspapers and magazine articles. It is not only the authors who get a chance to voice their displeasure about these horrific crimes, but the people left behind after these deaths as well, who reveal how they are dealing with the trauma that these two women brought into their lives. Law officials, family members, community members, and families of the offenders have a chance to tell their side of the stories through media literature.

CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION

The names Karla Homolka and Penny Boudreau are widely known names in

Canada. These two women are responsible for highly publicized crimes. The purpose of this thesis was to understand and study the reasons behind these crimes that are based on patriarchal values. Karla Homolka and Penny Boudreau are defined as sociopathic and psychopathic women. Being defined as sociopathic means participating in anti-social behaviour, and murdering one‟s family member is considered to be anti-social behaviour in Canada. Psychopathic behaviour is anything that is negatively exceptional or anomalous; murder is exceptional and anomalous. Karla Homolka and Penny Boudreau are two dangerous women who, because of their own selfishness, committed murder on young girls who trusted and looked up to them.

Because of society‟s patriarchal values these women went to inconsiderable lengths to maintain their romantic, heterosexual relationships. Boudreau and Homolka are among the many women who are under the impression that their lives are not complete unless they are one half of a heterosexual couple. Women become desperate to be a part of heterosexual love and feel frantic if they cannot obtain or maintain this kind of relationship. Society is responsible for these thoughts by women about how life should be lived. Women are viewed as sexy and erotic when they act submissive towards men. These views help encourage men and women to live in this social form. The media is one of the main causes for glamorizing passive behaviour and reliance on men.

Women now believe that they are supposed to be the submissive gender and that they require a dominant male to run and control their thoughts and feelings. Boudreau and

Homolka were so submissive to the men in their lives that they required power from exterior sources. The power they sought was from young girls, their family members.

Boudreau and Homolka used innocent lives to fulfill what they believed as a requirement for being a woman. Despite all of this hard work and stress in doing what they believed was a necessity, trying to maintain the happiness of their heterosexual partners, Boudreau and Homolka were still not happy.

Homolka and Boudreau used people physically smaller as well as physically and mentally younger to accomplish what they desired. Homolka targeted her younger sister because she viewed her as a threat to her relationship with Paul Bernardo. Bernardo was displeased that Homolka was not a virgin and she was desperate for his approval, so she decided to give him one for Christmas. Boudreau murdered her only child, twelve year old Karissa, because her common-law husband gave her the choice to choose between her child and him. Vernon Macumber did not intend for Boudreau to murder her daughter; he just wanted her out of his life. This still means he was selfish enough to make a woman choose between romantic love and the love of her only child. Macumber wanted all of Penny‟s attention on him.

These women are not the stereotypical female criminal or dangerous women.

Female criminals are usually from lower class families and have suffered abuse themselves as children (Kruttschnitt, Carbone-Lopez, 2006). Karla Homolka and Penny

Boudreau were not abused as children. These women may not fit the mold of a female criminal, but they made decisions that now have them statistically part of this group.

These women did not value innocent human lives above their own wants and needs. The

contentment and acceptance of their partners was more important than their own sister or daughter.

It was difficult but important to determine the similarities between Boudreau and

Homolka for the purpose of analyzing and understanding their crimes. There were many differences but there were similarities that helped prove the central question of this thesis.

The majority of written work on Homolka focuses on the nature of her crimes.

Homolka‟s crimes are defined as sex crimes and this was an issue because Boudreau‟s crime was not related to a sexual murder at all, although she attempted to disguise her crime against her daughter as being sexually motivated.

Three main theories shed light on Boudreau and Homolka: psychopathology, radical feminism and Marxist feminism. The psychopathology theory was extremely important to this research because Boudreau and Homolka are criminal women who are considered to be both psychopathic and sociopathic. Psychopathic is a term that has been used interchangeably with sociopathic. Boudreau and Homolka fit best into the category of primary psychopaths because they both have antisocial tendencies and behaviours, and do not seem to feel guilt about their criminal actions. They felt no guilt because they viewed their crimes as an act to strengthen their relationships with their romantic partners. This thought process and consequently, their criminal actions, were related to these women‟s view of themselves in a patriarchal society. A very interesting fact about

Boudreau and Homolka in relation to psychopathology is that they both had many of the characteristics on a checklist of behaviour that is needed to be defined as a psychopath.

Boudreau is a pathological liar, lacking in true remorse, guilt, emotional depth. Homolka was superficially charming, egocentric, self-centered, easily frustrated as well as being a

pathological liar, who had no remorse or sense of guilt about her crimes. However, it is important to remember that sociologically, the root of these women‟s‟ actions are in patriarchal society‟s values. Marxist feminism is the second theory that was used to explain Boudreau and Homolka‟s intent as well as their crimes. Marxist feminism focuses on the subordination of women, which started with the institution of private property. Women being viewed as mere property by the men in their lives. In the domestic sphere, the household is directly linked to how well capitalism and society function in general. Boudreau and Homolka both felt fearful that their spouses were going to harm or leave them. This fear made Boudreau and Homolka crave reassurance from these men. These relationships were also very unequal; the men in these women‟s lives had all of the power and control. Women are socialized in patriarchal societies to shy away from power. Men are the ones in power because too much power is seen as not being feminine and men resent this because the rules of a patriarchal system are not being followed when women have power.

In the cases of Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka, the patriarchal system was in place inside their own homes. Their values were patriarchal because they relied so heavily on their heterosexual partners for everything. Radical feminists want to eliminate patriarchy so that women can achieve equal rights with men. If Boudreau and Homolka had been aware of feminism and been educated in women‟s studies, then perhaps they would not have gotten themselves so deeply in involved relationships that drove them to commit these horrible crimes. With the end patriarchal influences in society, fabricated gender differences would eventually be eliminated as well. The ideal situation is that someday women will be seen as equal to men and, at this time, patriarchy will be

abolished. When this happens there should be much less crime committed for the reasons behind Boudreau and Homolka‟s crimes.

It was interesting switching from researching purely scholarly materials to popular culture materials because the media has a different view of the Boudreau and

Homolka crimes than the academic literature. Popular culture focuses more on the emotions of the people directly affected by these crimes as well as how these actions made these two women being viewed as “monsters” or “witches.” The emotions, opinions, thoughts, and feelings about Boudreau and Homolka and their crimes come through in the popular culture much more than in scholarly works. The writing in these media articles clearly indicates that the authors generally support the sentencing that

Boudreau received for her crimes while seeing Homolka‟s sentence as too lenient.

Popular culture focuses on the emotions, or lack thereof, shown by Boudreau and

Homolka. Both women were caught on camera crying after they had been convicted of their crimes. These articles depict additional emotions felt by the people who are writing about their crimes, those that are witnessing their court appearances and those directly affected by their crimes. The pictures of these women that are included in media work to make a statement about the criminals as much as to entice the reader to want to read the story behind the picture.

All of the people quoted in the media articles used in this thesis, expressed hatred and fear of these women not because they knew the young girls they murdered, but because these kind of behaviours are not tolerated in society. Popular culture about

Boudreau and Homolka is written so that the readers can be aware of the horror that

exists in Canada. Besides just reflecting on the horrors occurring in society the media contributes to the horror by drawing attention to it.

Continuing to conduct research about Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka and their crimes related to patriarchal values would be extremely interesting. It would be beneficial to conduct personal interviews with the people who knew these women and with those who were involved in these crimes. It would be next to impossible to interview Karla Homolka because she no longer lives in this country. Interviewing

Penny Boudreau would not be as difficult. Karissa Boudreau‟s surviving family members would also be very interesting and beneficial if the chance to interview arose.

Finally gaining access to Karla Homolka‟s court documents would also be grounds for excellent research.

A different approach to researching Karla Homolka and Penny Boudreau would be to focus on the two women as individuals instead of drawing attention to their similarities, as I did in this thesis. Drawing attention to the differences between

Boudreau and Homolka‟s crimes would open many more directions for research. One focus about Homolka would be the fact that her crimes are defined as sex crimes.

Studying sex crimes based on a woman committing them would be very interesting to learn about. Why did she commit sexual crimes on other women? Was it for power or was it because she was bisexual? While in prison Homolka was rumoured to be having a romantic relationship with a woman so these crimes could be about her questioning her own sexuality. Understandably this study would still be linked to patriarchal values in society. It would just be more focused on the type of crimes committed by Homolka.

One focus for additional research about Penny Boudreau could be to focus on the fact that she is a rarity because she chose strangulation as a form of murder for her only child.

Why did she choose this method? Why was it out of the question for her to simply get her daughter to move in with her father or other relatives? Why was death the only solution to her problem? Did she not consider that Karissa‟s biological father as well as her grandfather would have loved to have the child live with them? All of these questions would be grounds for fascinating research.

Comparing Penny Boudreau and Karla Homolka with male criminals who have committed similar crimes would also be interesting research to conduct. It seems that women who violate gender norms are demonized and are seen as particularly bad people, worse than male criminals who have committed similar crimes. It would be interesting to ponder if Penny Boudreau‟s common-law husband had been the murderer of Karissa

Boudreau whether people would have been as outraged and shocked as they were in the case of Penny being the murderer? People were quick to judge Penny‟s common-law husband as Karissa‟s murderer even when there was no evidence connecting him to it.

People have a stereotype of what the definition of “mother” should consist of. However being a biological mother does not automatically create maternal instincts and feelings,

Penny Boudreau is living proof of this. When women violate the un-written terms of

“mother” these women are then referred to as monstrous and evil. These views are still a part of the patriarchal order of our society.

Karla Homolka generated a lot of hatred because the public considered her as being equally guilty to Paul Bernardo but she only received a twelve year sentence for

her crimes. Despite the fact that the deal Homolka made for a shorter sentence was viewed as necessary at the time to convict Bernardo who was viewed as more of a threat to society. It is interesting how many people are convinced that Homolka was actually the worst of the two offenders. In society boys and men are expected to be violent and it is not unusual for them to violate people in the way that Bernardo did. Girls and women however, are supposed to be calm and quiet. The ones that go bad are nothing short of evil. Our attitudes to male and female criminals are different and the differences are rooted in the role of expectations that are gendered in patriarchal society. By conducting research on female and male criminals it would be possible to better understand if the treatment of male and female criminals who commit the same crimes is defined differently based on the gender of the convict.

Comparing the media content on the crimes of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo would be an effective way to view how these people are seen by society. Will women always be given harsher opinions because of their gender? Do women always have to be sweet and sincere if they want to maintain their femininity? When men commit violent offences is it just another example of how “boys will be boys?” Penny Boudreau murdered her own daughter but many men have been convicted of killing their own children and they have been forgotten for their crimes because it is not viewed as media worthy. When a woman kills her children it raises hysteria in the media because this action goes against every maternal instinct every mother “should” have. Further research would be beneficial and would shed light on continuing proof of patriarchal values in our society.

In closing, the central question of this thesis was, does patriarchy contribute to the crimes Homolka and Boudreau committed? According to the research done in this thesis, the patriarchal values of the society that Homolka and Boudreau were a part of did contribute to and influence the decisions these women made when torturing and committing murder on young women.

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