"Evil Women: The Villainesses of the Canon" Baker Street Journal
Of the canon’s sixty adventures, nineteen include at least one woman involved in the crime. In all, twenty female perpetrators commit offenses ranging from collusion to assault, kidnapping, and murder. Despite the severity of some of these actions, only one woman faces trial, and her fate reflects Victorian moral and class sensibilities surrounding women’s criminal motivations. Tami Cowden’s villainess archetypes assist in examining these women’s behavior and in explaining Holmes’, Watson’s—and even law enforcement’s—decisions regarding the crime and the criminal. Sherlock and the others use the lens of Victorian morality to judge women’s motives and deeds and determine their outcomes accordingly.
"Evil Women: The Villainesses of the Canon"