Consulting Editor’s Editorial: Female Juvenile Murderers: Beyond the Grace Factor

• Author: Kathleen M. Heide
• Published date: 01 June 2001
• Date: 01 June 2001
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X01453001
• Subject Matter: Editorial

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
Consulting Editor’s Editorial
Consulting Editor’s Editorial:
Female Juvenile Murderers:
Beyond the Grace Factor
Kathleen M. Heide
“Going to prison saved my life.” It seemed like an odd thing for a person to say. In
fact, it would have come across as an unbelievable statement to hundreds of peo-
ple who know this individual if these words had been broadcast live from my ther-
apy office.
The client who made this remark has the appearance and the persona of a soc-
cer mom. I will call her Magdalene. She presents as solidly middle class. Magda-
lene has a beautiful big home in the suburbs where she is doing her best to raise her
two sons. She is recovering fairly well from a contentious divorce. Her ex-
husband left her within the past couple of years, in effect emancipating her from
enduring more years of his physical and psychological abuse. Since then, Magda-
lene has met a man with good values who genuinely cares for her.
Magdalene is bright, well liked, and well respected. She is seen as compassion-
ate and caring. Friends and coworkers alike seek her advice and come to her for
help. She has a very high-powered job with a well-known company. She is a
woman going places. She is a woman with a future.
Thirty years ago, Maggie was a teenager totally out of control. She was hooked
on drugs and hanging out with adult thugs who used and abused her. She partici-
pated in their drug deals and their violent escapades. She became a principal in the
murder of two teens who got in over their heads selling dope. Along with her two
young victims, Maggie learned too late that “you don’t play with the big boys.”
Maggie was subsequently involved in a real-life shoot-out with the police. She
was seriously wounded and taken into custody. Although a minor, she was pro-
cessed as an adult, convicted of multiple counts of homicide, and sentenced to life
in prison.
It must have seemed incomprehensible to those who knew...