Title: Why Do Some Women Kill? - ABC News
Headings: Why Do Some Women Kill?
Why Do Some Women Kill?
Criminologists: Women and Men Kill for Different Reasons
Motive in Sandra Cantu Slaying Still Unclear
Women Less Likely to Use Extreme Violence

Content: Forensic psychologists and criminal profilers say women who kill have backgrounds and motivations that are often quite different from their male counterparts. Compared with men, women are more likely to be related to their victim, less likely to plan in advance and less likely to use extreme violence. Criminologists: Women and Men Kill for Different Reasons
"Women are different in whom, how and why they kill," said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University. " The victims are younger, they're more often related to them, they kill with means other than guns. "The traditional female role is a nurturer, not a murderer. Extreme violence is far more alien to females than to males," he added. " When a murder is committed by a female, it's more likely to be self-defense or can reflect some sort of mental illness." Though women committed roughly 10 percent of murders between 1976 and 2005, they were involved in nearly 35 percent of murders of intimate partners and nearly 30 percent of murders of where the victim was another family member, according to the Justice Department. So far, police have not released a possible motive for Cantu's death.