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

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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 By Sarah West Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Sociology Acadia University 2010 © Copyright by Sarah A. West, 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 ii 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. iv 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. v 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. vi 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 1 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 2 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,
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