Prompted by a perplexing trend of women increasingly committing felonies, Morris, a clinical and forensic psychologist, examines why some females go wild and crazy, resulting in bad sexual behavior or murder. Although the author (The Male Heterosexual
) revisits familiar media trivia on bad girls like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, the book doesn't really pick up steam until he explores the troubled pasts of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a single mother who killed several men and was executed in 2002, and Karla Homolka, known as “The Barbie Doll,” who, with her lover, taped their rape and murder of two teenaged girls, including one of Homolka's sisters. Morris delves into the lethal mix of developmental, psychological and cultural factors—negligent or abusive parents, social messages idolizing “girls gone wild”—that compel females to molest and kill: 70-year-old Loretta Fontaine killed her abusive husband, who terrorized her after they separated, and the infamous Susan Smith drowned her children and claimed a black man had killed them. Uncensored and engrossing, this study shows us the why and how, and gives practical ways to halt this heinous behavior from happening. (Aug.)
