Lethal Ladies Revisiting What We Know About Female Serial Murderers

In today’s world, murderers aren’t a surprising thing, as long as they are fictional. Plenty of TV shows and movies have plot lines around murder, but what about real life? As Scott Bonn states in his writing, of the approximate 15,000 murders in the United States, only 1 percent are serial killings, amounting to about 150 victims per year, with between 25 and 50 serial killers active at any given time. There are plenty of statistics on serial killers. 1 in 20 had the same three characteristics as a child: bedwetting, fire setting, and torturing animals. Animal torture is a common indicator that the child will be violent in the future. Also, over 30 percent of murderers use killing as a way for their sexual arousal (Stone). A murderer

As the literature on serial murder increases and becomes more common, it creates an essentialist stereotype, which forms specific notions about a serial killers ‘character’. These certain notions include that the serial killer is a male, the people he goes after are defenseless, his motives for killing are internal and he gets a psychological reward from doing it. Out of all the stereotypes, the most prominent is sexual fantasy. Sexual fantasy in killers was first discovered by Reinhardt in 1957 and since then serial killers have been classified as ‘sexual sadistic killers’. This name has become an emblem for them and has shaped the way they are defined and researched. Killers that blame their actions on this will repeat their fantasies until they are played out perfectly.

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

Serial murder, defined by Holmes and Holmes (1997) as the killing of three or more victims, over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant cooling-off period between killings, is a highly complex phenomenon which comprises of various elements and characteristics. The definition includes any offender, male or female, who kills over time, generally with a pattern in their killing which can be associated with the types of victims selected or the method of motives for the killing (Lee and Choi, 2014). Various theoretical explanations have been put forward to try and pinpoint the driving motivation behind serial murder, with Hickey’s trauma control model at the forefront. This essay will assess Hickey’s theoretical conceptualisation of serial murderers by analysing its relevancy in the famous case study of Aileen Wuornos – America’s “first” female serial murderer.

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.

Serial murder is one of the most baffling crimes that occur in the U.S. and all over the world. Knight (2006) defines serial murder as the killing of three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant cooling-off period. The cooling off period may be weeks, months or even years long. Researchers have proposed various psychological, biological and sociological theories that offer a partial understanding of the nature of serial murder. Some propose that the basis for criminal behavior is a predisposition to violence as well as a mix between environment, personality traits and biological factors. Serial killers are predominantly male. Only 3 percent of serial murders are committed by women (U.S. News and World Report,

Over the course of one year, from 1989 to 1990, Aileen Wuornos murdered seven men. As one of the first female serial killers, Ms. Wuornos prompted psychologists and criminologists to investigate the reason why women kill serially, as their motives differ from men. Historically, female serial killers murder by poison, which is considered less messy, therefore preferred by women, and their motives are typically financial. Aileen Wuornos murdered her victims with a gun and her motives differ from the norm. Through the application of the ideas of the attachment theory and the life course theory, further exploration into the causes of Aileen Wuornos’ crimes is achieved.

The question of whether or not man is predetermined at birth to lead a life of crime is a question that has been debated for decades. Are serial killers born with the lust for murder, or are their desires developed through years of abuse and torment? Many believe it is impossible for an innocent child to be born with the capability to commit a horrible act such as murder. But at the same time, how could we have corrupted society so much as to turn an innocent child into a homicidal maniac? Forensic psychologists have picked apart the minds of serial killers to find an answer as to what forces them to commit such perverse acts. Their ultimate goal is to learn how to catch a serial killer before

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.

The media today, is highly selective in their constructions of offences, offenders and victims. Media representations of crime are moulded and women are portrayed in a way that is entertainment driven and is appealing to the audience. Despite the fact that women seldom stalk, murder outsiders or commit sequential murders- in fact they are rarely vehement, “accounting for only ten percent of convicted violent offenders- those who do so are highly newsworthy because of their novelty” (Jewkes 2011, p. 123) Present day media admits that because fierce women are comparatively uncommon, they are all the more appealing and diabolical to the audience as a result. The essay shall discuss the reason and presentation in the media of female offenders, female victims and women specific crimes.

Majority of well known serial killers are male, but there are in fact female serial killers as well. Female serial killers make up less than 20% of the serial killer population. The mentions of female serial killers has people thinking of Aileen Wuornos. Aileen was a prostitute who shot and killed seven men; men that she claimed raped or attempted to rape her. The discovery of Wuornos’ killings was one of shock, because it had not been thought of for there to be female serial killers. Opposed to male serial killers, women mostly killed for money or some sort of financial gain. Males also start acting out at a younger age, most of them began acting out at age thirteen. Wuornos is an example of childhood trauma creating her into the killer she became, which is one of the most common causes in creating any serial killer, male or female. Although, serial killers only make up 1% of the murders in the United States. There is an estimated 15,000 murders a year meaning there are about 150 serial killings a year (Tron). Women serial killers are not as common as males, but that does not lessen the damage they can do or the traumatic childhoods they may have endured.

It has also been seen that “boys are almost five times as likely to be arrested for violent index crimes as are girls” (Britton 2011:27). This is due to the fact that females are typically considered to be too nurturing and weak to be able to commit any crimes much less murder. The case of Sheila and Rachel has proven that these are purely just misconceptions and that women can just as easily commit any sort of crime with the same efficiency as men, as proved in Britton’s theory about a new emerging “liberated female offender” (Britton 2011:28). When they murdered Skylar, there was no sense of remorse or nurturing at all. Rachel described that as they stabbed Skylar they could hear her neck making weird sounds and instead of stopping to realize what they were doing they instead continued to stab her until the sounds stopped (Ashdown 2014). In addition, prior to the murder Sheila and Rachel played a game with Skylar where they asked her which would be her preferred way to die and instead of taking one of her suggestions, such as suffocation or being shot by a gun, they chose to brutally stab her a total of ten times (Dateline 2014). This case shows that just because women are supposed to be loving and nurturing, that does not mean that they always are. Women too can just as easily turn to violence and anger as a way to resolve their problems and achieve their goals.

While most of the violent crimes that happens most are them are belongs to men, women have not been the wilting flowers promoted so heartily by Victorian adorers and (right or wrong) often evident in today's society. Before we get into detail about the fascinating phenomenon of the Black Widow, it is worth a brief overview of women's escalating role in the world of violent crime, particularly in the United States.

Researches has shown a variation regarding female murders relationship status no married, widow, divorced, or single woman is exempt of being a serial murder. Women from ordinary occupations such as midwife and employed all to educational and professional workers had commit homicide. Some of those professional women are nurses, secretaries or work with infants. Based on research, women with higher education such as college are most likely to engage on serial murders because they are in constant interaction with defenses people. According to Schurman-Kauflin (2000), states their studied that “nearly 1/3 of FSKs were nurse” Harrison, et al (2015). This is one of the reasons why older and people with ill are target by female serial killers because their lack of physical strength motivates women to demand silent but dangerous power over them. White and Lester (2012) noted, “women are four times more likely than man to drug their victims, as it may be easier for them to subdue their targets in this way” (Harrison, et al (2015). Those women are known as the “angels of death” because they used gentle and discrete means of murder such as lethal injections to carry out their execution. Although, females’ motives incline more towards children and disabled adults, the age average on their adult victims is mostly 40 years old and up. They, however, do not have a

According to Lilly, Cullen, and Ball (232) Feminist theory has been on the back burner of modern criminology until the late 19th century. As with the other criminology theories there are many thoughts and ideas on why females commit crimes. In the beginning the theories seem to revolve around the victimization of the female gender. Then criminologist took a look at female delinquency, prostitution, and gender inequality in the criminal justice system. Lilly (233) wrote that Lombroso used physiological traits to determine what type of women would commit crime. Lombroso also argued that the women that committed the most crime were more masculine then the women who did not commit crime. He used physiological immobility, and passivity to make the argument. Lilly (235) also wrote that Sigmund Freud believed the reason women committed crime was because they has “penis envy”. Since women were physical different than men, women would become more aggressive trying to act like the male counterpart in order to fit in with the status quo.