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?

Well there are women serial killers but much rarer than male.

I don't buy that there are loads out there and they're flying under the radar.

Men commit most violent and sexual crime so it's hardly a surprise surely?

Probably a combo of things as to why.

Certainly in my life I have come across loads of creepy men and zero creepy women. Anecdata. Presumably this disparity goes all the way up the crime scale.

There's not as many mass shooters who are women in USA for eg either. It's usually men (white).

Opportunity, entitlement, rage, that sort of thing?

The proportion of women who turn out to be murderers on mainstream telly is way out of whack with real life.

I think women tend to be awful in other ways.

Child cruelty.
Magdalene laundry nuns.
That sort of thing.

We're just less killy.

Yeah. And also we are too busy doing do so much we don’t have as much free time to go around killing people grin

^

Funny but I do think there's an element of truth involved in this. If you're run ragged looking after 3 kids, working, keeping up with a house etc you don't have time to meticulously plan murders! You're just glad of an early night

I think another big factor is physical strength - most women couldn't over power the weakest man - even if they wanted to.

There are quite a lot of serial killers particularly in America.

Well the basic stuff.

We don't seem to have the same types of sexual (mis) behaviour at all. Not so prone to various fetishes, etc.

We tend to be smaller and weaker than men.

We are less violent.

We are less entitled?

Are there more serial killers who act alone and attack men, than woman who act alone and attack men or women? My guess is yes.

Amelia Dyer - estimated to have killed hundreds of babies in th 19th centure.

Elizabeth Bathory could have killed up to 600.

Sorry the first bit should have said male serial killers who attack men.

I read a heartbreaking article years ago about a man who attacked lots of men in USA, about one of his early victims. I'll try to find it. The mechanism where he had no where to turn because in army. People who get away from these people (men) when they are starting out in their violent/ sexual offending, should be heard more.

Can't find the interview in full.

He was called Billy capshaw and was in a bunk room in the army with Jeffrey Dahmer. He was raped pretty much every night.

Serial killers build up to it. The stories of the early victims aren't often heard, I think.

1dayatatime, I know this is fiction, but, have you ever read The Third Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders? If not, it's about a female serial killer in New York. I love that book!

Well yes, there are some female serial killers. Another baby farmer from Victorian times was Minnie Dean (she was hanged).

Totally agree with @NiceGerbil. Men (as a group) are far more violent than women (as a group). They just are - we all know, we can all see it.

The wars of the world are all down to men, let alone all the ‘small scale’ and individual acts of violence so many of them commit.

Seeing as this is in Telly Addicts, you can see female serial killers in:
Marcella
Killing Eve
La Mante (in French, but worth watching).

Those are off the top of my head.

I agree with others that when women kill, they don't usually do it out of lust or out of an unreasonable belief that they're entitled whatever they want. I think they kill for revenge, out of a strange sense of duty (kill rapists, for example) or, I don't know, for a goal that isn't pleasure. There was a very proeminent case where I live in which a young woman killed her parents for the insurance money and inheritance.

Also, as someone else said, the way women kill is different. Poisoning or smothering or whatever will probably get less media attention than cutting bodies into pieces, raping, etc. Besides, men have the advantage of physical strength. Would you attempt to kill someone that is stronger than you without some serious planning beforehand?

Miyuki Ishikawa is the one I was thinking of:

murderpedia.org/female.I/i/ishikawa-miyuki.htm

Kokeshi123 , thats so interesting. The female serials back in history that i watched You Tube docs on seemed to have money as the prime motivation whether via life insurance policies or acquiring their employers money after they died. It's shocking how arsenic was so freely available back then & featured so often. These days, in the US, anti freeze & insulin seem to have replaced it as a female serial killer favourite. Stats wise the top two countries for serial killers are US & UK. Worrying!

Because they get away with it and hence avoid the tag?

[quote MrDunnePoetry]"Mary Bell"

My Mother was an absent prostitute, often travelling to Glasgow to get laid/
It is not known who my biological Father is, though believed a criminal by trade
Accounts from several family members, suggest my Mother tried to end my life/
During the first few years of my life, before being sexually abused by random guys
So a day before my 11th birthday, I murdered a four year old in a derelict house/
Then again with my friend in '68, together we strangled 3 year old Brian Howe
On waste land in the same area, before returning to carve his stomach with an 'N'/
Using only just a razor, before using that same razor to turn the 'N' into an 'M'
I also used a pair of scissors to mutilate his penis, & cut off some of his hair/
though the precise details of what really happened, have never been entirely clear
An open verdict had been recorded, because there was no evidence of foul-play/
Being that I was too young to leave any marks, when I strangled him that day
Eventually his death was linked with Howe's killing, so in the month of August '68/
Both of us were charged with two counts of manslaughter, for the two that we slayed
In 1980 aged twenty-three, I was released from prison having served twelve years/
With no signs of any remorse, being nobody ever cared to stop this little girls tears.

Copyright 2012 The Elusive Mr Dunne (All rights reserved)

allpoetry.com/poem/16284372-Mary-Bell-by-Mr-dunne-poetry[/quote]
Aye, very good, but the original post/ thread is almost 2 years old!

@NiceGerbil

I think women tend to be awful in other ways.

Child cruelty.
Magdalene laundry nuns.
That sort of thing.

We're just less killy.

This. Also not sure where mental health fits in - does serial killing also include munchausen type things? Women who suffer breakdowns and kill their children?

Of course there was the Bakelite girl in Wallace and gromit

There are loads of female serial killers, the previous posts have just about covered it.

But just wanted to add that Rose West actually killed one of her (step) children whilst Fred West was in prison - Charmaine, aged 8. So absolutely nothing to do with Fred West at all. The dental records proved the timing and how it absolutely cannot have been FW. There are lots of other instances like this in the whole Fred / Rose thing. She was / is an incredibly evil woman.

There are plenty of female serial killers but it takes some googling and you have to go back a few centuries, whereas you could probably reel of list from the top of your head of male serial killers from very recent history.

The question should be why aren't there more!!!!!

There has been several throughout history. Aileen Wuornos, Rosemary West, Elizabeth Bathory...

There is the fact though that mental and personality disorders like psychopathy and sociopathy usually affect more men than women. Or that if women have these type of personalities they are still less likely to turn to physical violence/homicide than their male counterpart. Probably to do with the difference in brain 'wiring' and physical strength.