I was shocked and saddened to hear about the shooting at a faculty meeting (Huntsville Times, 2/12/10) at the University of Alabama. According to the New York Times (2/12/10), Dr. Amy Bishop learned at the meeting that her appeal to an earlier denial of tenure was being rejected. The NYT also reports that Bishop had complained that it was "unfair" that she was having problems getting tenure. Bishop will be charged with capital murder, which qualifies for the death penalty.
I found myself surprised that the shooter was a woman; however, I'm unable to find any statistics on the sex of the perpetrator in workplace homicides. Men are more likely to be victims of workplace homicides (Hendricks et al, 2007), but that's "normal". As discussed in "Murder Most Unusual" (4/13/09), men are more likely to be both the victim and the perpetrator of murders. The three confirmed dead have one masculine, one feminine, and one sort of neutral name.
I also noted my lack of surprise that she reportedly had trouble getting tenure; Todd et al (2008) reported that women were more likely than men to perceive "unfair practices" in the evaluation of their work. I also cynically noticed that the NYT reports her major invention as having been developed "with her husband". I'm trying to remember the last time I saw an article reporting that someone had developed something "with his wife." I'm coming up blank.
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I live in HSV. Thankfully, I don't think anyone I know was involved.
I think there's a recorded difference in how men and women usually kill, in that men are more likely to use "violent" methods like guns or other weapons, while women are more likely to use things like poisons. Though I don't have immediate citations to back this up, so take that as you will.
I was also surprised to learn the shooter was a woman; I don't think I've heard of another shooting that involved someone other than men as the culprit(s).
Yikes. Thankfully indeed.
men are more likely to use "violent" methods like guns or other weapons, while women are more likely to use things like poisons
That sounds right, but I am not finding anything immediately in the archives or Google Scholar.
Two of the people who were killed were women. Of the 6 people who were shot, 3 were women. I'm not sure exactly what if anything can be concluded from this.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/professor_accus.html
@Mike: I have no idea what to make of that. The n is reaaaally small.
@DA: well, I don't know what to make of that, either (the defendant's history).
Yeah, the first several times I read references to the shooting (on Twitter), the gender of the shooter was not mentioned. I assumed male. When I found out I was wrong, I had this moment of feeling pleasantly surprised -- the way I generally do when I see women in roles stereotypically held by men. But then the bizarreness of that hit me, and my reflex "yay equality" response was quashed. :-/ Such a terrible thing, in any case.
I would assume that almost all workplace/school shooters are guys because I've only heard of guys before this, but I don't have any stats either.
I think it's worth noting here that there's an interesting cross between gender and sex in this particular case. From the comments, it seems that people are shocked to see a female playing in a typically masculine role of violence. Yet if we are categorizing this as a "masculine" act, and we're viewing the *idea* (not the actual act because I understand the horrifying situation this is!) of females acting in a masculine fashion then this really isn't as far fetched as seeing a woman changing a tire, a typically masculine role. But again, I reiterate, I understand the violence aspect and am not trying to say shooting someone is the same as changing a tire, rather the idea of a female body acting in a masculine fashion, behind the two is similar.
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