Introduction
The phenomenon of female serial killers is a rare process that is widely used to research different aspects of criminology and psychology from the gender perspective. There are different reasons for women to commit crimes, but they can be both similar and different from males’ reasons. Female serial killers can have similar social issues and anxiety, but they fail to be recognized due to public opinion and the association of killers with the male gender.
Distinction of Female Serial Killers
Hybristophilia
One of the distinct features of female serial killers can be hybristophilia. According to Pettigrew, hybristophilia is described as a process in which men are usually sexually attracted to a woman, and due to that, they are willing to commit a crime for the sake of the partner (419). In this situation, the lover might murder another individual if the partner asks for that action. That sense of philia is widely common among female criminals who usually use multiple men to achieve their goals. The study analyzed the case of a female serial killer that used three men to murder people by luring them into sexual attraction. It can be said that such a feature was not recorded among male serial killers who could not lure any women into aiding them.
Murder Victims
Another attractive trait is the female killer’s feature of killing relatives and close friends of lovers rather than the male killer’s interest in strangers. This was evaluated by the theory of Harrison et al., who claimed that it was explained by the inner instincts of females and males (295). Men usually stand as hunters and tend to stalk strangers and kill them in a specific area, while women, as gatherers, would kill those surrounding them daily. It can also be connected with deeper explanations, such as the social motives of women to kill their close people that vary from relatives to children. There can stand not the desire to murder people or any other psychotic disorders but the social pressure, anxiety, and depression of women that are more sensitive than men. For different reasons, female serial killers still tend to be more specific in victims than male killers.
Research on Female Serial Killers
The personal insecurities and anxiety discussed above are similar to male serial killers who suffer from various disorders and health issues. As for the reasons for committing murder, both female and male serial killers usually have childhood traumas, such as household abuse or school bullying (Keatley et al., 2922). It can also be similar for them to have sexual tensions towards their victims, as rape is a common consequence of murder. Disposing of the body among female serial killers usually involves dumping it into the water or leaving it inside the house. However, due to the fact that female serial killer’s victims are primarily relatives, they can be found in specific and less researched places that cannot be categorized into the sampling method. Still, like most other killers, female serial killers have similar traits in the killing approach and practices of disposing of the body.
One of the important features of female serial killers is that cases rarely happen. There are usually fewer female serial killers known worldwide than male ones. According to Harrison and Frederick, there are six times more male killers than female ones (3773). It also stands as the reason for the rising interest in female serial killers, who used to stay unnoticed or avoided the public discourse by rarely happening. The mass media or the literature usually provide data on male serial killers, omitting the female serial killers due to the low sample necessary for research or the lack of information about the individuals. As females also stand as the main target of male serial killers, the data can be distorted by the larger share of female victims in the discourse of serial killers as a general. Through this low sampling, there is also a lack of research on female serial killers and their reasons, motives, and background for committing the murder.
It is also noted that it is harder to identify female serial killers rather than male serial killers. Hall described different serial killers, mentioning one of the former professional wrestlers (40). She suffered from several childhood traumas, in which her mother sold her to a drunk neighbor who raped her several times and left her pregnant with a son. As an aftermath of psychological issues, she started murdering women over 60, which symbolized her intentions towards her mother. However, it was troubling to identify her since the police thought the killer to be a man who was dressed as a woman due to the masculine shape she had. In that case, almost 22 murders happened until the police finally caught the killer and imprisoned her. This also shows the bias of police towards serial killers, in which it is usually assumed to search for a male killer rather than thinking that it could be a female. Due to these false expectations, there are still cases that are unresolved or were prolonged.
Conclusion
Female serial killers differ from male serial killers in the reasons and motives behind the murder, as well as the fact that they tend to murder close relatives, lovers, or children. There are not sufficient studies on female serial killers to investigate psychological and social reasons, but few are similar to childhood trauma and social anxiety or depression. For the future of serial killer research, there is necessary to review female serial killers as an additional subgroup in the context of criminology.
Works Cited
Hall, Susan. The World Encyclopedia of Serial Killers: Volume Three M-S, Wildblue Press, 2020.
Harrison, Marissa A. et al. “Sex Differences in Serial Killers.” Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, vol. 13, no. 4, 2019, p. 295
Harrison, Marissa A., and Erika J. Frederick. “Interested in Serial Killers? Morbid Curiosity in College Students.” Current Psychology, vol. 41, no. 6, 2022, pp. 3768-3777.
Keatley, David A., et al. “Using Behavior Sequence Analysis to Map Serial Killers’ Life Histories.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 36, no. 5-6, 2021, pp. 2906-2928.
Pettigrew, Mark. “Aggressive Hybristophilia in Men and the Affect of a Female Serial Killer.” The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, vol 30, no. 3, 2019, pp. 419-428.