The Importance Of Female Serial Killers

The FBI has defined serial killing as “the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s) in separate events” (Farrell, Keppal, & Titterington, 2011, p. 231). While individuals who partake in such activity do receive a large amount of attention, the female parts of this population are vastly under recognized. Female serial killers receive little academic attention, even though they are a complex and dynamic group to study (p. 229). Women make up 15% of American serial killers, with 36 known to be active in the last century (p. 230). It is speculated that at any given time there are 50-70 serial killers in the United States, and approximately 7-8 of them are female (Schurman, 2000, p. 12). Moreover, females acting alone manage

242) due to the fact that females can kill without anyone being aware of their activities and therefore without anyone stopping them (Schurman, 2000, p. 13).Therefore, we should still have a considerable bulk of research directed toward these women in order for the criminal justice system to effectively catch these offenders, rehabilitate, and prevent increasing numbers of female serial killers. So why has there been a lack of research on female serial killers when there has been enough of them throughout history to justify inquiry and analysis? This is because woman’s tactics and victim choices often effectively conceal their crime to look like natural or accidental death, while society is simultaneously mislead to think women cannot be serial killers because of culturally defined gender

A study found that 22.86% of victims are children personally associated with the killer and another 14.29% of victims were children acquainted with the murderer such as being a patient or neighbor (Farrell et al, 2011, p. 240). One of the most common female serial killer classifications are known as “Angels or Death” and they are caregivers, usually nurses, who kill those in their care (Pozzulo, Bennell, & Forth, 2015, p. 410). They focus on individuals they care for, most likely because they are the easiest to control and have power over. Angels of death are often motivated by ego and the need to dominate (Freiburger, & Marcum, 2015, p. 125). They get the feeling of control and complete domination, then others give their sympathy because the killer is thought to have lost a patient or loved family member.

For children, people are often hesitant to blame women in their death. Nobody wants to accept that a mother could kill their own child or anyone else’s child. Even if they aren’t a mother women are seen as compassionate and caring, the nurturing gender, so they are less likely to be the center of investigation in a child’s death. As for the elderly nobody would have a very strong reason to question their death to closely because of the victim’s age (Brogden, 2001, p.