The author explores the development of female violence and its typical expression in acts of aggression directed towards the woman's own body and those of her children. She explores the societal resistance to confronting the disturbing reality of maternal abuse in the light of commonly held, cherished beliefs about femininity in general and motherhood in particular. The hidden nature of female violence, so often enacted in the private, domestic realm, is evident in the clinical case material presented. The author presents a model of the psychology of female violence described as ‘crimes against the body’.