Male vs Female psychopatic serial killers: Characteristics and Behaviours

In his book Analyzing Criminal Minds: Forensic Investigative Science for the 21st Century

the author Don Jacobs shares some great insights about some of the main characteristics and behavioural differences between male and female serial killers.

Although female rates may be lower than those of males, it is beginning to emerge from the research that males and females may vary in the manners in which they exhibit psychopathic criteria ( Weizmann-Henelius, Viemero, & Eronen, 2004 ).

Here's a short and interesting comparison I made after reading the book:

- Male killer tends to gravitate toward traditionally masculine occupations ( Jacobs, 2003 ), most likely in an effort to restore and assert the masculinity that has been taken from them in their personal lives and that they aim to recapture via serial murder. The female serial killer tends to gravitate to traditionally female occupations ( Schurman-Kaufl in, 2000 ), sometimes referred to as “pink-collar” jobs (Keeney & Heide, 2006), such as nursing and caregiving roles ( Freiet al., 2006 ; Keeney & Heide, 2006). These women generally come from homes in which traditional male-female roles are perpetuated and caregiving is what they know how and have been socialized to do ( Schurman-Kaufl in, 2000 ).

- Males generally are mobile in their hunt for victims and seek out strangers to kill rather than people they know ( Jacobs, 2003 ). Women generally kill victims with whom they are either acquainted or with whom they have a personal relationship, such as husbands, children, and patients ( Frei et al., 2006 ). In fact, those in the custodial care of female serial killers are most often their victims, nearly 43 percent, with family members coming in second at 37 percent,

and strangers, acquaintances, and lovers to whom they are not married constituting the fi nal 20 percent ( Frei et al., 2006 ).

- Male killers exhibit clear stalking behaviors, such as trolling for victims and actively pursuing the ones they desire, showing clear preference for a specifi c type of victim above all others ( Jacobs, 2003 ; Keeney & Heide, 2006). Generally, the type of victim selected is believed to correspond to the individual in the killer ’s own life whom he would like to eliminate but cannot because of the power that person exerts over him ( Jacobs, 2003 ). Female psychopathic serial killers tend to further divert from the path of the males by engaging in covert killing methods ( Perri & Lichtenwald, 2010 ). Poison often emerges as the weapon of choice ( Frei et al., 2006 ; Keeney & Heide, 2006; Perri & Lichtenwald, 2010 ; Schurman-Kaufl in, 2000 ) with suffocation and asphyxiation also being popular methods for murder ( Perri & Lichtenwald, 2010 ; Schurman-Kaufl in, 2000 )

" Like the spider on her web, female killers generally lure rather than stalk their victims in ways such as posting ads for boarders, ensnaring husbands and lovers, and engaging in prostitution (Keeney & Heide, 2006). "

-Motivations for committing their crimes. Males, who tend to score higher on aggression, social dominance, and agency Psychopathy Checklist– Revised (PCL-R) scales than women ( Hicks et al., 2010 ; Keeney & Heide, 2006), seek to gain power. Females in addition to killing children, both her own biological children as well as those in her care, female psychopaths are highly more likely than males to abandon or neglect their biological children ( Warren & South, 2006 ; Weizmann-Henelius et al., 2004 ). It is speculated that this happens in part because, during pregnancy, the woman commands the attention others, which feeds her narcissism, but this attention shifts to the child once it is born. Getting rid of the child may be a way of reconciling this injury to her grandiose self-image ( Perri & Lichtenwald, 2010 ).

- Psychological disorders: Male psychopathic serial killers are unique in some of the psychological disorders that frequently present comorbidly with their psychopathy. APD is a frequent additional diagnosis, especially when the criteria are met in childhood ( Forouzan & Cooke, 2005 ). Additionally, the deviant sexual aspects of the crimes frequently are explained by the presence of sadism in the personality of the offender ( Forouzan & Cooke, 2005 ). In terms of diagnoses comorbid with psychopathy, females exhibit some of the same psychological disorders seen in males and others that are unique to the female gender. Female psychopathy is frequently comorbid with APD, especially adult criteria ( Forouzan & Cooke, 2005 ; Weizmann-Henelius et al., 2004 ), which stands in contrast to the male version in which childhood criteria is the factor of greater significance. Additionally, attention defi cit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a signifi cant correlate to female psychopathy, especially the characteristics of callousness, a lack of empathy, and impulsivity and irresponsibility ( Sevecke, Lehmkuhl, & Krischer 2009 ). Also commonly diagnosed are histrionic, borderline, and paranoid personality disorders ( Strand & Belfrage, 2005 ; Weizmann-Henelius et al., 2004 ).

Females also score higher on stress reaction, social closeness, and behavioral constraint PCL-R scales than men ( Hicks et al., 2010 ) and are more likely to have a psychiatric history than males (Sevekce, Lehmkuhl, & Krischer, 2009). Furthermore, they display significantly higher levels of anxious, depressive, self-harming, and suicidal behaviors than males ( Sevecke, Kosson, & Krischer 2009 ).

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Don Jacobs, (2011) Analyzing Criminal Minds: Forensic Investigative Science for the 21st century