n this article I explore the ways in which legal language, discourses,and narratives construct new dominant identities for women who kill their children.These identities are those of the ‘bad’, ‘mad’, or ‘sad’ woman. Drawing upon andcritiquing statutes, case law, and sentencing remarks from England and Wales, Iexplore how singular narrative identities emerge for the female defendants con-cerned. Using examples from selected cases, I highlight how the judiciary interpretlegislation, use evidence, and draw upon gender stereotypes in carefully con-structing macro-narratives which produce gendered identities for filicidal women,thus nullifying the challenge these women pose to appropriate femininity and themotherhood mandate. Each of the narrative identities discussed deny the agency ofthe female defendants that they are attached to, albeit in subtly different ways, bydenying their ability to make any degree of choice in relation to their filicidalactions. Although such identity construction and agency denial may not always bedamaging to these filicidal women per se, its pervasiveness within legal discoursereinforces and reproduces damaging gender stereotypes surrounding women andfemininity

EB00000004221K			Available
EB00000004222K			Available

• Bad, Mad or Sad? Legal Language, Narratives,and Identity Constructions of Women Who Kill theirChildren in England and Wales