Just as Deadly

The Psychology of Female Serial Killers

Marissa A. Harrison

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009170888
• Topic: Psicología
• Subtopic: Psicología aplicada

You've heard of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. But have you heard of Amy Archer-Gilligan? Or Belle Gunness? Or Nannie Doss? Women have committed some of the most disturbing serial killings ever seen in the United States. Yet scientific inquiry, criminal profiling, and public interest have focused more on their better-known male counterparts. As a result, female serial killers have been misunderstood, overlooked, and underestimated. In this riveting account, Dr. Marissa A. Harrison draws on original scientific research, various psychological perspectives, and richly detailed case studies to illuminate the stark differences between female and male serial killers' backgrounds, motives, and crimes. She also emphasizes the countless victims of this grisly phenomenon to capture the complexity and tragedy of serial murder. Meticulously weaving data-based evidence and insight with intimate storytelling, Just as Deadly reveals how and why these women murder—and why they often get away with it.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Reviews
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Epigraph
• Chapter 1 Introduction: What Is a Serial Killer?
• Chapter 2 Why Are We Interested in Serial Killers?
• Chapter 3 The Lives of Female Serial Killers
• Chapter 4 Mental Health and Substance Use Among FSKs
• Chapter 5 FSK Crimes and Outcomes
• Chapter 6 FSK Motives and Profile
• Chapter 7 Comparing FSKs and MSKs: Backgrounds and Mental Illness
• Chapter 8 Comparing FSKs and MSKs: Crimes and Victims
• Chapter 9 The Behavioral Neuroscience of Serial Murder
• Chapter 10 Psychosocial Factors that Make a Serial Murderer
• Chapter 11 Evolutionary and Converging Perspectives of Serial Murder
• Chapter 12 Our Understanding of Serial Killers Evolves
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• References
• Index