1 In 6 Serial Killers Are Women, Here's Why - Dr Marissa Harrison

Dr Marissa Harrison is a psychologist, professor, researcher and an author. All the most infamous serial killers are men? But 1 in 6 serial killers are women - a group who have totally slipped under the radar. So who are these women? What are their motives and why haven’t we heard of them? Expect to learn why female serial killers are neglected in research, what the average demographic of a female serial killer is, who are the most likely victims of a female serial killer, why they kill, the methods they use and much more… - 00:00 Studying Female Serial Killers 03:56 Why Marissa Receives So Much Criticism 06:50 Why is the World Obsessed With Serial Killers? 11:41 Demographics of Female Serial Killers 19:34 The Jump From Nurturing to Murdering 25:38 Why More Female Serial Killers Are Married 28:59 Does Abuse Create Serial Killers? 35:17 Most Common Victims of Female Serial Killers 39:36 How Often Do Female Serial Killers Kill Their Children? 44:31 Motives Through an Evolutionary Lens 49:06 Most Common Weapons of Choice 54:43 Does Our Current Society Deter Potential Serial Killers? 1:00:47 The Important Role of Psychology in Stopping Crime 1:02:58 Where to Find Marissa - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic here - https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Chris WilliamsonhostDr Marissa Harrisonguest

Nov 7, 20241h 3mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Unmasking Female Serial Killers: Motives, Myths, and Evolutionary Roots

Dr. Marissa Harrison explains how female serial killers differ systematically from men: they more often kill for money and power, target familiar and vulnerable victims, and use covert means like poisoning, frequently in caregiving roles.
She argues that cultural beliefs about women as nurturers make female serial killers both under‑suspected and under‑studied, despite estimates that roughly one in six serial killers in the U.S. are women.
Drawing on evolutionary psychology, Harrison links male and female motives to reproductive strategies, proposing a ‘hunter–gatherer’ model where male killers stalk strangers while women ‘gather’ victims within their social and domestic circles.
The discussion also critiques the true-crime industry’s glamorization of violence, emphasizes the impact of childhood trauma, and calls for more resources for policing and psychological intervention to prevent violence earlier in life.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Female serial killers are more common than people think, but harder to detect.

Harrison cites estimates that about one in six U.S. serial killers are women; however, because they kill in quieter ways (e.g., poisoning, medical settings, family environments), their crimes often mimic natural deaths and go unnoticed longer.

Men and women kill for systematically different primary motives.

Her data show men are primarily sexually motivated, often targeting strangers, while women more often kill for money and power, usually against people they know—spouses, children, elderly relatives, or patients.

Female serial killers frequently occupy caregiving roles that grant access and cover.

Roughly 44% of the women in her U.S. sample were nurses or nurse’s aides, leveraging trust, medical knowledge, and access to drugs to harm infants, the elderly, or the disabled with low immediate suspicion.

Cultural beliefs about female nurturance create investigative blind spots.

Societal schemas of women—especially grandmothers, mothers, and nurses—as inherently caring delay suspicion, meaning female killers ‘hide in plain sight’ inside roles where death can be plausibly attributed to illness or age.

Childhood sexual and physical abuse is overrepresented among both male and female serial killers.

Harrison repeatedly finds profound childhood trauma, especially sexual abuse, in case histories; while most abused children never become violent, this trauma appears as a common denominator among those who do.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

We need to catch male serial killers, but we need to detect female serial killers.

— Dr. Marissa Harrison

When somebody’s convinced something is true, they dig their heels in, and even in the face of contrary evidence, they might dig in even further.

— Dr. Marissa Harrison

Women tend to kill for money and power; men tend to kill for sex.

— Dr. Marissa Harrison

If I told you the story of that boy they called Johnny, you’d feel bad for him. But that boy was John Wayne Gacy.

— Dr. Marissa Harrison

I do believe morbid curiosity informs protective vigilance.

— Dr. Marissa Harrison

Stereotypes and public blind spots around female serial killersStatistical profile and demographics of female serial killersSex differences in motives, methods, and victim selectionEvolutionary psychology explanations (sex drive, resources, hunter–gatherer hypothesis)Role of caregiving professions and ‘angels of mercy’ dynamicsChildhood trauma, mental illness, and developmental pathways to serial murderEthics and impact of the modern true-crime media industry

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