The psychology of female serial killers

Female murderers are relatively rare. When women do kill, it is often their partners or their children. It is estimated that females constitute only around 10% of all murderers. This makes female serial killers extremely rare. Some studies have suggested that of all know serial killers, around 15% are female.

In this first module I’m going to discuss whether female murderers are rare, why women murder, and what characteristics they are likely to have?

It is much easier for us to think of and define women as the victims. This is still possible to do when a woman kills only once. We tend to be able to reconcile her actions in our minds by believing that she was acting out of desperation. That she had gotten to a point where she could no longer take the abuse or the burdens that she had been placed under. However, this is much harder for us to do with female serial killers. We often want to know the reason why they killed again and again.

In this module, I’m going to discuss whether there any differences between female serial killers and women who only murder once, and the ways in which female serial killers are defined.

This module takes an in-depth look at Aileen Wuornos and the psychological mechanisms that drove her murderous behaviour.

This module takes an in-depth look at Beverley Allitt and the psychological mechanisms that drove her murderous behaviour.