Examining the Adjudication Patterns of Male, Female, and Partnered Serial Killers

• In Event: Punitiveness in Policy and in Practice

Abstract

This empirical analysis of serial homicide offenders supports previous research on offending patterns, but also reveals empirically based analyses can enhance our understanding beyond traditional case studies and descriptive statistics. One of the other key findings from this study reveals even at the level of being convicted for committing serial murder, women remain less likely to be sentenced to death than men. Sentences for the international sample include: life imprisonment; death row; execution; commutation; number of years imprisonment; or, confinement to a psychiatric hospital. Offenders may also have been remanded to custody or resentenced to life (moratorium on the death penalty in that country). Most male serial killers were sentenced to death (death row or executed; n = 219, 64.6%), while most female serial killers were sentenced to life imprisonment (n = 27, 38.0%). Most of the partnered serial killers received sentences of a number of years imprisonment (males, n = 81, 37.1%; females, n = 52, 47.7%). Therefore, given the limited research on serial murder adjudications, this research more fully explores the convictions, dispositions and adjudications of these offenders, particularly with respect to race, sex and social class.

Author

• Elizabeth A. Gurian, Norwich University