Essay on Female Serial Killers

His dead body was found in the woods near Daytona Beach, Florida, shot with a twenty two caliber rifle. “She ended up shooting six .22 caliber bullets into him” (McDuff 202). This is just one of the many catastrophes performed by a woman serial killer. Serial killers are a problem in the United States, murdering on average 2000 people each year (Indiana University np). “In fact, serial murder in the United States alone makes up more than three-quarters of the estimated world total” (Innes 5). Although women serial killers are not very common, they still have a huge impact on the death toll of innocent victims. In order to understand how woman serial killers operate, it is important to understand their motives, the different classifications

However, reports suggest that there has been a drastic reduction of such cases. In fact, statistical data in the United States indicates that the rate of murders of women has reduced by 43%. This means that the murders have decreased from 4.18 to 2.38 homicides per 100,000 female U.S residents. (Catalano, Smith, Snyder, & Rand, 2009). On the other hand, findings prove that women still remain at greater risk of being murdered in violent intimate relationships. Intimate partner homicide has declined significantly in the past 25 years. But these declines, while truly significant, mask the important fact that women are substantially more likely than men to be murdered by their intimate partner (Gannoni & Cussen, 2014, p.

There are many factors that inhibit women to commit violent crimes. Most women suffer from substance abuse, spouse abuse and mental issues. The most common risk is being previously being abused earlier in life. A survey conducted in 2002 reported that thirty six percent of all female

This research looks at the life and death of Aileen Wuornos, serial killer. A serial killer is someone who murders more than three victims one at a time in a relatively short interval. Serial killers have the ability to behave in a manner that arouses no suspicion. There are, however, a few signs to identify their potential to become a serial killer. People who suffers from psychopathy, involves a huge tendency towards antisocial behavior, are most likely to develop into a serial killer. FBI estimated that any given time between 200 and 500 serial killers are at large, and they kill 3,500 people a year. This high average shows that killing becomes a

“Come prepared to stay forever.” Belle Gunness was a serial killer, between the years 1884-1908, that killed more than 40 people, men, women, and children, on her farm in La Porte, ID. She was known as The La Porte Black Widow, or The Mistress of Murder Farm. Many people in La Porte, ID grew up hearing the horror story of the Murder Farm at the end of McClung Rd. and its killer mistress. Belle Gunness was labeled “one of America’s most prolific serial killers”. A serial killer is a person who kills three or more people within a month.

The United States criminal justice system, an outwardly fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but for women. The policies imposed in the criminal justice system affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. I plan to examine how gender intersects with the understanding of crime and the criminal justice system. Gender plays a significant role in understanding who commits what types of crimes, why they do so, who is most often victimized, and how the criminal justice system responds to these victims and offenders. In order to understand the current state of women and the way in which gender relates to crime and criminal justice, it is first

According to Jurik and Russ (1990) compared to men, women frequently kill intimates or people they had very close, social relationships with such as family or friends. Additionally, there is hardly any overkill with victims of female serial murderers. Many victims of female serial killers often have no signs of sexual assault, body mutilation, or dismemberment. Women who murder often do not torture their victims prior to their death, unlike males who are seen to engage heavily in torture. For their choice of weapon, many female serial killers used some form of poison or suffocation, known as covert methods, to kill off their victims.

Criminality is still assumed to be a masculine characteristic and women lawbreakers are therefore observed to be either ‘not women’ or ‘not criminals’ (Worrall 1990, p. 31). Female offenders are hallmarked for tireless and inescapable coverage if they fit into the rewarding newsworthy categories of violent or sexual. It is always important to note the reason for overrepresentation of women criminals in the media. “Women who commit serious offences are judged to have transgressed two sets of laws: criminal laws and the laws of nature” (Jewkes 2011, p. 125). Such women are hence “doubly deviant and doubly damned” (Lloyd, 1995). When women commit very serious crimes, such as murder, they attract

In history women and girls’ experiences as offenders and victims have been left out of criminal studies. According to Joanne Belknap, Author of The Invisible Women: Gender, Crime and Justice, many theories before the 21st century state that women offenders are only deviant in criminal behavior due to a result of biological forces. Stereotypical theories such as Anatomy as Destiny (Sigmund Freud), The Unadjusted Girl (Thomas), Behind the Mask (Pollack), are all early 1800 stereotypical male chauvinist theories to explain why women become deviant. Throughout history it is well known that the culture of women and the feminist movement had begun essentially in the late 1800s. Even until today, somehow the study of women offenders and equal treatment still is lacking. In the 1800s, society viewed women as more stricken, to act ladies and always protect their Chasity. While this view was widespread, there were women in the 1800s who acted quite opposite and decided to live a life of deviant behavior and criminality. The duo Cattle Annie and Little Britches are the definitive illustration to platform women criminality in the 1800s. Deemed as the youngest outlaws in American history, Cattle Annie and Little Britches make history after turning their innocent teenage years into an outlaw infatuation. In this paper we will review how that infatuation led them to join outlaw gangs, becoming career criminals, and eventually being jailed for their offences and how it relates to

Based on this vital information does this bring us to the conclusion that women are simply becoming more violent and bolder as time passes by even to the point that they surpass that of men? Surely I am of the view that women did not spontaneously decide to turn to a way of crime, as a matter of fact the majority of women in prison have experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse both related and unrelated to men.

Statistics show that the number of female offenders in the legal system has been increasing steadily. The number of female offenders entering the American justice system is growing at a rate faster than males. Statistics from the United States in 2010 show the female offender population to be increasing by 2.7% each year, compared to the male population at a rate of 1.8% each year, with similar statistics being seen in other Western countries (West & Sabol, 2010). The continued increase has made understanding female offenders and their catalysts for committing crime more imperative.

All feminist theorists share a common focus on gender inequality; however feminism can be described as a set of perspectives rather than a single viewpoint (Strider, N.d.). Therefore, challenging gender biasness in the criminal justice system from the feminist perspective can take many forms given the fact that there a lot of sources of gender inequality in the system. For example, the early theories of criminal behavior largely ignored gender all together and as a result the field has become largely male dominated and males have also been shown to commit more crimes than women on average.

In this paper, I will set out to uncover the impact of feminist approaches within criminology. It will demonstrate how these theoretical perspectives have changed our opinion on women as victims, as well as criminals themselves. By exploration of taboo subjects such as the danger of prostitution looking into how it can prove problematic for feminism. In addition to the labelling of domestic violence, whilst uncovering a variety of key theorists and perspectives. Feminism is crucial to the study of criminology as it takes away traditional explanations of crime and uncovers an entirely different perspective of crime and criminal behaviour. Feminist Criminology contains many different extensions Liberal, Radical, Marxist, Socialist etc.. This

Feminist criminology emerged out of the realisation that criminology has from its inception centred on men and the crimes they commit. Although it can be argued female criminality was researched by Lombroso, as far back as 1800’s, female crime, it’s causes and the impact in which it had on society was largely ignored by the criminological futurity. Those Criminologist who did attempt to research female crime such as Thomas and Pollak were not only very damning of women but were also very condescending, choosing to stereotype them as either Madonna or whore (Feinman).

Deviance and crime are present in our life every day. Beside good behaviors, deviance and crime play important roles to make a successful society. According to researchers, crime is usually done by men up to 93 percent, and very few women commit the crime. Many researchers have been doing research about the reasons why women are driven to kill. Dr. Stone created a scale with 22 levels that can help to measure the evil behaviors of human beings. There must be many reasons that drive women to kill; however, in my opinion, two reasons can make women killers are anxiety and historical background and these reasons are drastically different from men.