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Mar. 7th, 2003 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccI finished reading Perfect Victim last night.
The book was co-written by the mother of the victim and by a journalist. The mother covered the family/friends/personal side of Rachael Barber's disappearance, the arrest of her killer and discovery of her body and the aftermath of dealing with the trial.
The journalist covered the police side a bit more and the mindset of the murderer.
It was difficult reading a lot of it, especially as the murder was quite recent (1999) and notorious. I read the book partly because I was interested in the mindset of the murderer - there were some details in the press, but not enough to answer the question: what makes a 20 year old woman stalk and murder a 15 year old girl? The book didn't really answer that either - I think in all honesty the only person who could answer that would be the murderer herself, and I can't see her doing it.
But I did agree with the psychologist who said: if this had been a 20 year old man stalking and murdering a 15 year old girl would we care that he was incredibly depressed with low self-esteem during his teenage years? That he had contemplated suicide? That his parents had divorced acrimoniously and his relations with both were strained?
Probably not. It's interesting how different our reactions are to murders committed by males and those by females. This case was notorious because it was not a "typical" female murder - the perpetrator was educated, didn't kill a close relative, had a job, was from a higher SES bracket... but she did choose to kill at home. It surprised me how many of the psychologists employed by both the court and the defence couldn't seem to see beyond gender. If you just took the crime it would look like a crime committed by a sociopath. IMH completely non-medical O. :-) Which kind of made gender irrelevant.
In the end though I was left wondering how families ever recover from this kind of trauma. Particularly Rachael's younger sisters. And Caroline (the killer)'s younger sisters. Who were friends before. How on earth do these families cope?
And whether 20 years is long enough to rehabilitate someone who appears to have changed herself in the way she'd planned when she planned the murder. To make herself as her "Perfect Victim" was: younger, beautiful, popular, talented, with a loving boyfriend... not just identity theft, although that was part of it, but a total change of person. And it seems that she felt only by killing could she change herself. And - scarily enough - she has. In gaol she's lost 30kg, dyed her hair, and become the "Jem Southall" that she planned to be. In Deer Park Women's Prison rather than in Byron Bay, admittedly, but still.
It makes me wonder if murder will remain the answer to her problems. It worked last time. Can someone without empathy be rehabilitated?
And whether you can ever really protect yourself against someone who has carefully planned your death...
</lj-cu
The book was co-written by the mother of the victim and by a journalist. The mother covered the family/friends/personal side of Rachael Barber's disappearance, the arrest of her killer and discovery of her body and the aftermath of dealing with the trial.
The journalist covered the police side a bit more and the mindset of the murderer.
It was difficult reading a lot of it, especially as the murder was quite recent (1999) and notorious. I read the book partly because I was interested in the mindset of the murderer - there were some details in the press, but not enough to answer the question: what makes a 20 year old woman stalk and murder a 15 year old girl? The book didn't really answer that either - I think in all honesty the only person who could answer that would be the murderer herself, and I can't see her doing it.
But I did agree with the psychologist who said: if this had been a 20 year old man stalking and murdering a 15 year old girl would we care that he was incredibly depressed with low self-esteem during his teenage years? That he had contemplated suicide? That his parents had divorced acrimoniously and his relations with both were strained?
Probably not. It's interesting how different our reactions are to murders committed by males and those by females. This case was notorious because it was not a "typical" female murder - the perpetrator was educated, didn't kill a close relative, had a job, was from a higher SES bracket... but she did choose to kill at home. It surprised me how many of the psychologists employed by both the court and the defence couldn't seem to see beyond gender. If you just took the crime it would look like a crime committed by a sociopath. IMH completely non-medical O. :-) Which kind of made gender irrelevant.
In the end though I was left wondering how families ever recover from this kind of trauma. Particularly Rachael's younger sisters. And Caroline (the killer)'s younger sisters. Who were friends before. How on earth do these families cope?
And whether 20 years is long enough to rehabilitate someone who appears to have changed herself in the way she'd planned when she planned the murder. To make herself as her "Perfect Victim" was: younger, beautiful, popular, talented, with a loving boyfriend... not just identity theft, although that was part of it, but a total change of person. And it seems that she felt only by killing could she change herself. And - scarily enough - she has. In gaol she's lost 30kg, dyed her hair, and become the "Jem Southall" that she planned to be. In Deer Park Women's Prison rather than in Byron Bay, admittedly, but still.
It makes me wonder if murder will remain the answer to her problems. It worked last time. Can someone without empathy be rehabilitated?
And whether you can ever really protect yourself against someone who has carefully planned your death...
</lj-cu
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Date: 2003-03-06 11:35 pm (UTC)just popping by and thought I'd say hi. Sounds like a fascinating book, btw. I've just started "The Little Friend" by Donna Tartt (author of "The Secret History"). SH is one of my alltime faves - a truly wonderful mystery if you're into that kind of thing - and quite relevent because it touches on themes of how people deal with the aftermath of killing someone.
I liked your "I'm on holiday song" (to I am evil Homer) - I just cannot get it out of my head now, lol!
*damn*