Dr. Gary Kaniuk Consultation Triage & Testimony Case Study

Dr. Gary Kaniuk

Consultation Triage & Testimony in Forensic Psychology

Yvette Riley

Female Serial Killers -- An Introduction

The heinous act of murder has been outlawed by various authorities, states, jurisdictions, and by many religions for thousands of years. One of the best known of the Ten Commandments ("Thou Shalt Not Kill") is explicitly clear on killing. But when the perpetrator kills more than one person, and continues the killing at intervals, it is called serial killing and that is the subject of this research.

given that only one out of every six serial killers is female, there has been a lack of understanding and also a lack of empirical research that leads to a better understanding of these hideous crime sprees by females. That dearth of knowledge should be supplemented with more research.

Female Serial Killers -- Data & Histories in the Literature

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) places five "typologies" on female serial killers who act independently of others.Those five are: a) "black widow" (she kills "multiple spouses, partners and relatives"; b) "angel of death" (in order to gain "medical attention" she kills people that are in her care; for example she may be a caregiver or nurse); c) "sexual predator" (this female kills others in sexual homicides); d) "revenge" (hate and/or jealousy motivates this killer); and e) "profit or crime" (this female seeks money, profit) (Taylor, et al., 2012).

A scholarly article in the journal Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health provides a literature review of existing studies on female serial killers, and the most common motive in this investigative piece was found to be "material gain" or gratification that runs along the lines of material gain (which is linked to "e" in the paragraph above)….....