Serial Murder Gender

The Effects of Gender on Serial Murder

The car pulls over onto the side of the road. The man rolls down the window, knowing exactly why a woman would be on the side of the highway dressed in barely anything in the middle of the night; however, the man does not know what will become of this encounter. He argues about the price, and is met with a handgun. Eventually, his body is found in a junkyard without a wallet or a watch. This man is Richard Mallory, and the killer is Aileen Wuornos. She later goes on to kill several other men. The FBI defines serial murder as the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events. Male and female serial killers alike have plagued the world for centuries, but criminal

For instance, women rarely use brute force or to physically harm their victims with their own bare hands. Torture is hardly ever performed by female serial killers. Hinch and Hepburn explain, “..women are more likely to use poison to kill (35% use poison only, and 45% use poison in combination with some other means of killing).” This shows the nonviolent and occasionally impersonal modus operandi- or techniques used by female serial killers. Contrastingly, males commonly prefer to physically quench the life from the victim in an extremely violent way. Male serial killers tend to use “hands-on” methods like shooting, strangling, suffocating, stabbing, or bludgeoning their victims with knives, blunt objects, and even their own hands to kill (Keeney and Heidi 385 and Hickey qtd. in Hinch and Hepburn). Not only are male serial killers more violent when killing, but also in the time prior to the kill. It is not uncommon for the males to torture the victim before death, or to defile the body after death. According to Keeney and Heide, “Male serial murders have tended to inflict a great deal of damage to causing death and to engage in the torture of their victims prior to death” (385). For instance, Dennis Rader-- the BTK killer-- had a routine when it came to his victims. He would bind them, torture them, and finally kill them. Serial killer Ed Gein, while notorious for inspiring numerous beloved horror movie killers, would create spoons, bowls, belts, and other household items, accompanied by skin suits, from his victims bodies. Along with having a gender specific ways of killing, serialists also vary by gender when selecting