Female Offenders

The Inconspicuous Danger

Female serial killers are rarer than their male counterparts but no less dangerous. Their methods and motives, however, often differ fundamentally. While men frequently kill for sexual reasons or out of a need for dominance, women often act out of greed, revenge or pity (so-called "angels of death" in caregiving professions).

Women kill more "quietly". Poison, medication or suffocation are common methods because they require no physical superiority and often go undetected for a long time. The crimes frequently take place in the home or at work, where the victims trust the perpetrator.

Well-known examples are Aileen Wuornos, who departed from the classic pattern as one of the few women to do so and shot seven men, and Gesche Gottfried, who poisoned 15 people with arsenic in the nineteenth century.