NCJ Number
182591
Date Published
2000
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article examines the similarities between female and male serial killers.
Abstract
Although female serial killers often use different methods than men, when their motives are examined, male and female serial killers have much in common; both males and females may have a variety of motives not necessarily linked to gender. Because the typical methods used by female serial killers are influenced by their role in society, as the role of women expands, the methods used by female serial murderers may become more like those typically employed by male killers. Feminism has arguably given women a greater sense of entitlement, facilitating the outward expression of emotion and expanding women’s comfort zones. Women are now more likely to come into contact with a wider array of means to gratify their needs in general and to express their fears and rage in particular. Feminism is serving a catalytic role in the evolution of the female serial killer, although the basis for the behavior remains the same: a need for a sense of being and vitality that is experienced through empowerment. This emerging female will be decidedly hateful of men and will seek to punish them, the symbol of her oppressed sense of self.