Abstract
Israeli scholars have found that a lenient and paternalistic perception of violent mothers has been characteristic of Israeli court decisions over the last few decades and the general public. Mothers, in comparison to fathers, are perceived as being more influenced by mental disorders and therefore deserving of cure and care rather than punishment.
As part of a wider research that compares the construction of fathers and mothers who kill, this article analyzed 19 articles from the three most popular secular Israeli daily newspapers that covered six notorious cases of filicide by mothers between 1992 and 2001. The coverage during the first few days, at the significant initial stages of the process of covering the events, received more in-depth examination.
This research shows that the local press tends to stress the psychopathological etiology for the rare Jewish married mother who kills. It also suggests that this attitude is not present in cases of marginalized `criminal' women: women from ethnic minorities (e.g. Arab women), and mothers who do not fill the traditional role of wife inside the `well ordered family', as is true of young and unwed girls.
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