When She Was Bad

How and Why Women Get Away with Murder

By: Patricia Pearson

Narrated by: Sarah Mennell

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

Critic reviews

WINNER OF THE ARTHUR ELLIS AWARD FOR BEST NON-FICTION

A GLOBE & MAIL BEST BOOK

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

"Groundbreaking." —The Vancouver Sun

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

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

Naaaaaa

Tried to get through first few chapters of the book before coming to conclusion that it is basically just one long complaint about how women don’t get their just due in regards to evil and aggression. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that the author talks of women killing more infants than men like it’s a selling point. Can understand and appreciate the study but the delivery made me feel like I needed to shake the weird out

Should be required reading

A wonderful expose on the myth that women are inherently sweet and kind. The author does a wonderful job of providing the evidence of what so many of us have experienced and been saying for years. It's time that our society acknowledges that women are just as, if not more, prone to violent outbursts as men. Would love to see one on the statistics of female sexual assault having also been a victim of handsy women who get away with doing things in full view of the public than men are being cancelled simply for being accused of.