Why are there no female serial killers?

[1dayatatime]

So during the lockdown I've been watching a few series (some of which involve serial killers (The Fall, Luther etc) and it for me thinking about that out of the hundred of serial killers in history why are there no female serial killers?

A lot of the women ones are baby/child killers. One of the worst ones I saw a doc on was in the Victorian era. A woman who took money for taking care of poor children whose families couldn't afford them. She'd just overdose them or starve them and keep taking the money!
Their targets suggest physical power is a factor. They can't/don't just bundle strangers into cars.

Vronsky cites statistics indicating that nearly one in six (16 percent) of serial killers apprehended in the United States since 1820 was a female

That seems high, the UK crime statistics have >95% of violent criminals are male.

You say you've watched Luther? The main female character kills everyone 😂 😂

@CountFosco

Vronsky cites statistics indicating that nearly one in six (16 percent) of serial killers apprehended in the United States since 1820 was a female

That seems high, the UK crime statistics have >95% of violent criminals are male.

Except you are comparing two different statistics. Not all violent criminals kill their victims, not all murders are violent and not all murderers are serial killers.

serial killers is much different from # violent criminals

I don’t know how accurate vronsky’s statistics are though. It would depend on a agreed definition of a serial killer inmho. How many people do you have to kill to be one?

OK so thinking about what are my strongest emotions it would be to protect my children or a very deep revenge. So given that over the years too many women have suffered long term violence, sexual abuse or had their children hurt or abused etc that they would then want some form of violent revenge on men. So if anything there theoretically should be more female serial killers than men. Just theorising

Raya and Sakina murdered 17 women in Alexandria between 1919 and 1920. They were motivated by greed.

australiasdarkheart.weebly.com/australian-female-serial-killers.html

www.insidehook.com/article/crime/notorious-female-serial-killers

‘I was led into it by a male partner’ is neither a moral excuse nor a legal defence, which is why West is serving a life sentence and Hindlley, quite rightly, died in prison.

I personally don't think Rose West was led at all I think she was equal if not leading in their horrific crimes.

Listen to the podcast 'unheard: the fred and rose west tapes' and from that I believe Rose was worst than Fred.
It is a really good series.

There are many but their methods are different mostly poison. Women don't match men at all.

There was a programme on maybe the albi channel about the Wests she came out as most dominant allegedly she would encourage her husband to do things.

Isn’t there a pierce Morgan doc on Netflix at the moment “women who kill” ?

Perhaps they are so much better at it and so don't get caught?

Beverley Allit.
Rose West
Myra Hindley

Off the top off my head. I did a google, there are quite a few. Of course, not so many as male, but they do exist.

@1dayatatime

Oh I asked my sister the same question and she just gave an intense stare said "because women are smarter and don't get caught" then laughed manically all the while stroking a kitchen knife. But she's always had a weird sense of humour 😀

I think your sister sounds brilliant

Made me genuinely laugh out loud

The two Nick Broomfield documentaries on Aileen Wuornos are some of the most brilliant pieces of filmmaking I've ever seen. Well worth a watch -- interesting, horrifying and utterly heartbreaking.

But a lot of these women Myra Hindley, Rose West etc were led this into by male partners. I genuinely don't think either of these two women would have committed these crimes alone on their end initiative

That's a bullshit excuse. They were active parties in everything.

Women tend to use methods that are more easily covered up - suffocation, poisoning, drowning etc. Men on the other hand usually go for faster, more violent methods- shooting, stabbing, beating etc.
They also tend to choose their victims differently, and have different motives. There are many, many female serial killers though.

Some of the most notorious are:
Rosemary West
Myra Hindley
Aileen Wuornos
Dagmar Overbye
Karla Homolka
Leonarda Ciancuilli
Elizabeth Bathory (very, very old case admittedly but an interesting one)
Beverley Allitt
Amy Archer-Gilligan
Dorothea Puente
Nannie Doss
Kristen Gilbert
Amelia Dyer (another old, but disturbing case)
Jane Toppan
Juana Barazza
Judy Buenoano

Alot of these women also got reduced sentences because they were female. Dagmar Overbye was going to be the first women to recieve the death penalty until the king of Denmark had her imprisoned for life instead due to her gender.

Mary Anne Cotton? Britain's first convicted female serial killer. They made a series about her recently called Dark Angel. The things she did were horrific.

The majority of female serial killers were accomplices to violent men they were infatuated with rather than the initiator.
Not that it makes them less guilty of the crime, but its very rare to find a woman who will just do that.

And MaryAnne Cotton didn't get a reduced sentence. She got hung. Admittedly it took ages for her to get caught and convicted because it was at a time when the general belief was that women weren't capable of being serial killers.

She killed 2 or 3 husbands and a lover for their life insurance, along with eight of her own children, her mother, best friend and other people.

Also female serial killers tend to be given rather silly, less intimidating nicknames -
Jolly Jane compared to Jack the ripper. Society tends to underestimate women, dismissing the idea that they are just as capable of evil as men. I think there are far more female serial killers than have ever been caught, the victims of female killers are generally someone the woman knows; she is usually able to spend alot of time with that person and able to plan things very well whereas men tend to attack strangers more often and so there are more opportunities for mistakes and therefore getting caught. The longer a murderer goes without being caught, the more time they have to perfect their method, they become faster and can kill more people.

There are. Comparatively few though (see also the statistics for violent crime in general).

Rose West was the ringleader in the wests' case. If you read up on them, her surviving children admit she was the one they feared most and was far far crueller then Fred was. Fred was an abhorrent excuse for a human but Rose was worse. She killed Freds daughter on her own when he was in prison.