Male and female serial killers compared

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A serial killer can be defined as a person, male or female, who has committed three or more murders in duration of one month with day’s intervals and the killing intention is based mainly on psychological fulfillment. Serial killers in general have the following characteristics; they are intelligent, they do not like working in companies or organizations but prefer self employment, some may have been abandoned by their father and raised by their mothers, in most cases serial killers come from families associated with criminality and alcoholism, they are very much tempted to committing suicide and they might have been either physically, emotionally or sexually abused by others in the family in their young ages. The sense of killing is influenced by some factors which might be either biological, sociological or psychological which might be as a result of traumas like; loss of parents, marriage breakages and imprisonment with hard labor (Hickey, 2010).

Female serial killers are not as common as male counterparts although a number of murders in United States are committed by female serials. In most cases women will kill for comfort purposes, that is, in aim of acquiring money, business ownership or insurance benefits. On the other hand there are those women who kill so as to get revenge, to win love, for drug related cases, some kill due to the feeling of inadequacy and also for sexual fulfillment. In most cases female serial killers execute their actions near their dwelling places since women are not as mobile as men. Among the methods used by the female serial killers are, poisoning the victims, shooting, suffocation, drowning in water or through stabbing the victim. Female serial killers are characterized by the following: They cannot sustain a relationship or they are always away from the family. The female serials can continue with this act for long without giving up, they kill silently and with less violence and in most circumstances they kill those near them like, husband, secret lovers, children or relatives. The female serial killers have in mind the characteristics and qualities of victim to murder although in most cases they find it difficult to get those qualifications thus they end up killing other people randomly and each victim has a quality which only the killer can recognize (Holmes m $ Holmes T, 2001).

Male serial killers are different from their female counterparts in ways of murder execution, motives and characteristics. The male serial murderers’ motives to kill are related to anger, compensation, a person may be hired to kill someone else so that the victim does not testify in court, for financial gain, in need of power where the competitor is murdered in cases of politics and leadership, and finally men commit murder for the purpose of eradicating a certain group or an individual for the purpose of gaining authority over them like in case of terrorism. The victim selection of male killers is based on the physical characteristics and personal characteristics. The killer has a clear picture of the victim before starting the hunt and, as in the case of the female serial killers, many who have similar characteristics might end up being killed in the process of identifying the targeted victim. The way in which the male killers execute the action is also different from that of female although some methods like shooting and drowning are common. Other methods include neck twisting, fighting the victim to death and knocking down someone with either a vehicle or a heavy metal. Male serial killers have the tendency of secluding themselves from the society and being busy doing their own things. Most of the killers are employed, or are very rich but they are not psychologically fit. Some might be having mental problems or have anger and hatred for some people or a certain community which inspires them to act violently towards the targeted people (Holmes m $ Holmes T, 2001).

References

Hickey,W. E. (2010). Serial Murderers and Their Victims, (4th ed). Thomson/Wadsworth

Holmes, T.S., $ Holmes.T.R. (2001). Murder in America. (2nd ed.). Sage Publications, Inc:

Library of congress cataloging-in-publication data.