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Here's a grisly fact: Britain's first serial killer wasn't Jack the Ripper, but a Victorian-era
woman named Mary Ann Cotton who was hanged in 1873 for murdering three husbands and 15 children.
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Hi, I'm Cristen Conger of Stuff Mom Never Told You in today for DNews.
Fortunately, *** is a rare crime, but when it happens, the perpetrator is usually male.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, for instance, roughly 9 out of 10 homicides
are committed by men. And similarly, from 2002 to 2012, 93.9% of people convicted of
*** in England and Wales were men.
So what provokes women like Mary Ann Cotton and triple-murderer Joanna Dennehy, whose
gruesome crimes have recently captured British attention?
Criminologists have identified certain differences in how women ***, compared to men:
Women tend to *** people they know, for instance: According to U.S. data collected
between 1976 and 2005, about 42 percent female murderers' victims were intimate partners
or other family members.
Perhaps because of that, women are less likely to kill more than once, and since 2000 women
have comprised only around 6 percent of serial killers.
And finally, women use poison or arson more commonly, rather than wielding a weapon that
might demand more physical strength to claim victims' lives.
But as for the whys of women killing, it involves a range of motives such as greed, jealousy
and psychopathy, just as they do with men who ***.
Speaking to the BBC, clinical psychologist Elie Godsi also noted that the public might
seek out a specific explanation for why women *** since the crime is such a violent violation
of female gender norms.
We tend to think of women as society's nurturers and caregivers -- not bloodthirsty killers.
Now we want to hear from you -- why do you think murderous women are so attention-grabbing?
Comment below and tweet us @DNews.