A conversation with Dr. Kathryn Whiteley and AJ Nutter.
Kathryn Whiteley Ph.D. originally from Australia, is one of a few criminological researchers
who have meet individual women convicted of murder, serving life, life without parole sentences
for almost 20 years, in maximum security prisons in Ireland, Australia, Pennsylvania and Texas
in the United States.
Her goal is to avoid the gravitation towards the crime and motive and learn
more of the entirety of the women’s lived experience, from childhood, adulthood and their
incarceration experience. Her contention is that a focus limited to crime and motive yields an
incomplete understanding of the phenomenon of killing by a woman; she asserts the women are
more than their crime. She has published in academia, appeared on international television, in
media, produced an educational documentary on women serving life, and is a college professor.