NCJ Number
159026
Date Published
1993
Length
205 pages
Annotation
This book describes cases involving female multiple murderers.
Abstract
The introductory section presents some statistics on crimes committed by women, focusing on multiple murders. The book contains 183 cases of multiple murder committed by female offenders; 70 percent are defined here as serial murders, 12 percent as mass murders, 16 percent as either triple or double slayings, and 1 percent as spree killings. While most female murderers work alone, 21 percent of the cases documented here involved accomplices. Several of the female killers committed suicide, particularly when they had murdered family members. Victims of these women included relatively, friends, and acquaintances; only 11 percent of victims were strangers, while another 10.5 percent were patients or persons left in the killer's care. Motives for these multiple killings ranged from greed to mental illness, sadism, criminal enterprise, and jealousy.