Anatomy of a crime: Why are women criminals different?

New Delhi: Sonam, Muskan, Shivani, Ravina, Radhika… framed in their dual identities as women and alleged "husband killers”, they have not just grabbed headlines and courted notoriety over the last months but also challenged conventional notions about femininity and crime.

The young women from various parts of the country were living their everyday lives, a world away from the national spotlight. Until they were arrested on charges of murdering their husbands. That they were women from small towns who broke out of stereotype in the most brutal way possible led to sensational headlines, frantic curiosity and also gave fodder to a series of misogynistic memes and jokes.

The questions abound - why do women commit crimes, why are they treated differently than male criminals, are they demonstrating empowerment or signs that they are, in fact, disempowered.

It’s a mix of social stigma, rigid gender roles, and unrealistic standards for women, experts said.

British criminologist Frances Heidensohn has a term for the strong societal reaction - double deviance theory.

A woman committing a crime “not only violates a legal norm but also a gender norm”, explained G S Bajpai, professor of criminology and vice chancellor of the National Law University in Delhi.

“Women are expected to be caring and compliant. A woman who commits crime is therefore an aberration - abnormal and exceptional. This is not true for men... She is, therefore, as some scholars have described, ‘doubly deviant and hence must be doubly punished’. Thus her gender becomes relevant to society’s response to the crime. She is not just a criminal, she is a female criminal,” Bajpai told PTI.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported over 4.45 lakh crimes against women in 2022. However, it doesn’t maintain a separate category for crimes 'by' women due to their low numbers. Yet serious offences committed by women, however small in number, make an impact all their own.

On Tuesday, Sonam Raghuvanshi, a household name today, was taken to Meghalaya to reconstruct the killing of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi found hacked to death on a hillside, a critical step in the probe into a case that has the nation agog. The Indore couple was on their honeymoon and the bride allegedly plotted the killing along with her former boyfriend and three hitmen.

In March this year, Muskan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla allegedly stabbed her husband Saurabh Rajput to death in Meerut, dismembered his body, and sealed the remains in a drum filled with cement.

In April, Bijnor's Shivani claimed her husband died of a heart attack. Police later revealed that she had strangled Deepak to death. The same month, in Bhiwani, YouTuber Ravina allegedly killed her husband with the help of a male friend after he objected to their "intimacy" and her social media activities.

Also in June, Sangli woman Radhika allegedly killed her husband, Anil, only 15 days after their marriage.

Except for Ravina who is 32, the others are in their 20s.

Then there was media executive Indrani Mukerjea, accused of killing her daughter Sheena Bora in 2012, and Jolly Joseph from Kerala, who allegedly poisoned six family members over 14 years to acquire property.

And long before, in 19th-century Kolkata was Troilokya Devi, a courtesan and India’s first known female serial killer who lured women -- mainly sex workers - and murdered them to rob them of their jewellery. With an accomplice, she killed at least five women before being apprehended and was executed in 1884.

Many of the recent cases - dealing with wives killing their husbands -- triggered a flood of social media outrage and prolonged media coverage that often painted women as inherently malicious and portrayed men as helpless victims of their evil spouses. One instance of the vile and misogynist ride on social media websites was a crude callback to “Sonam Bewafa Hai” (Sonam is unfaithful) viral meme from some years ago.

Public focus is misdirected, said women’s rights activist Yogita Bhayana.

“It reflects our discomfort with women breaking out of the roles assigned to them. Such societal suppression will eventually lead to outbursts. The media is sensationalising it, giving it a ‘Sonam did it’ spin, as if she acted alone, which she didn’t-there was male involvement too,” Bhayana told PTI.

Referring to the Sonam Raghuvanshi case, she said it became easier for her to plot a murder than to admit she was in love.

“That’s the kind of psychological conflict women face in our society. Her crime isn’t being defended, but we need to examine the root causes -- how deeply our culture conditions women to behave a certain way.” Men, Bajpai added, are motivated primarily by power, honour, impulse, and instrumental goals while female crime is often propelled by prior victimisation, manipulation, and emotional stress.

“A society that views women as caregivers and crucibles of honour is no doubt disturbed when those women engage in criminal activity,” Bajpai said.

Intimate partner violence is “neither new nor uncommon”, as global and national trends have indicated that “instances of husbands killing their wives far outnumber instances of wives killing their husbands”, he argued.

“In fact, over half of all cases of homicide against women in India are carried out by their current or former partners…This indicates that the media reporting of cases of women killing their husbands is disproportionate,” he noted.

According to criminal psychologist Deepti Puranik, there may be a number of reasons behind such an “outburst” against social ties.

“Culture and society generally play a lot of roles when it comes to marriages. People are forced to get married against their wishes. Many people are getting married very early and at that age they haven’t reached an emotional maturity level to understand the responsibility that comes with a marital relationship,” she said.

Bhayana echoed Puranik.

Women’s mental health and internal struggles are ignored, she said. The suppression they face growing up, the communication barriers, and the unrealistic expectations placed on them all builds up.

Stories of women criminals have often followed a predictable pattern -- centred on themes like extramarital affairs. This reflects a broader lack of nuance in how such cases are understood, revealing gaps in the way female criminality and its complex motivations are examined.

Kulpreet Yadav, co-author of “Queens of Crime: True Stories of Women Criminals from India”, said law enforcement procedures “have never truly adapted to consider women as potential perpetrators” because of the scant number of crimes by women.

“...the focus has overwhelmingly been on male offenders. Female criminology, by contrast, has received very little attention. As a result, our global understanding of how a woman with criminal intent thinks is quite limited,” said the author.

Does that mean crime should be treated the same irrespective of the perpetrator’s gender? Bajpai advises strongly against it.

“Such a blanket approach may result in injustice. At times, given the nature and context of the crime, the gender of the perpetrator and the victim become relevant to appropriately understanding the criminal act. Such a comprehensive appreciation of the facts ensures that the response of the state and society is fair and effective,” he said.