Unusual Issues in Fed and Rosemary Case
Name
Institution
Unusual Issues in Fed and Rosemary Case
The case of Fred and Rosemary West involved ten murder counts suspected to have been committed by the defendants. Rosemary was convicted of the murder cases after Fred’s death. Various unusual issues are evident in the Fred and Rosemary case. These issues range from time and place of crime occurrence.
Fred and Rosemary would strip girls, bind them with tapes, rape them, torture them and finally kill them (Gavin, 2010). Considering that Fred and his wife committed these crimes, it is controversial as to how Rosemary, being a woman, would allow and encourage such occurrences. Moreover, the West would dismember their victims before burying them. Such an action raises a question regarding their stability psychologically and socially.
Another odd issue involved in the case is the media construction of Rosemary as being an evil monster (Berrington & Honkatukia, 2002, p. 50). Rosemary was depicted as being exceptional and unnatural. Rosemary was considered as being a monster because of committing murder in which case she had transgressed expectations and norms associated with femininity. Such description influences people consider her mental state and rather not the nature of her crimes.
The ruling of Rosemary’s case involved consideration of her state and rather not her actions. The ruling judge labeled her as a prostitute who was either a lesbian or a bisexual. It is expected that ruling should be based on the actions and not the state. However, this policy was not considered during the ruling of Rosemary’s case. Moreover, the judge considered the sex toys involved in the case as solely belonging to Rosemary. According to Weare (2013, p. 348), such conclusion is wrong since they could have belonged to Fred and Rosemary. Gavin (2010) explain that after conviction of Rosemary to a minimum of 25 years in prison, Home Secretary Jack Straw later subjected her to a lifetime jail. This occurrence was due to the construction that the media had given Rosemary, which provoked strong feelings. It is unusual that femininity was used an item for consideration in the ruling.
Bibliography
Berrington, E. and Honkatukia, P., 2002. An evil monster and a poor thing: Female violence in the media [Abstract]. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 3(1), pp.50-72.
Gavin, H., 2010. Mummy wouldn’t do that’: The perception and construction of the female sex offender. Grotesque Femininities: Evil, Women and the Feminine, pp.61-78.
Weare, S., 2013. “The Mad”,“The Bad”,“The Victim”: Gendered Constructions of Women Who Kill within the Criminal Justice System. Laws, 2(3), pp.337-361.
